Thousands Without Power As California Braces For Severe Storms

Hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Northern California were without power Sunday morning as the area braces for another bout of extreme weather that forecasters say will likely worsen over the next few days. 

A powerful storm, tied to what the National Weather Service described as "a steady stream of atmospheric river events," is expected to bring heavy rain and snow, potentially in addition to both rock and mudslides, to parts of the Bay Area before beginning to taper off on Tuesday. 

Although forecasts indicate that the most severe weather will arrive closer to Monday, upwards of 430,000 electric customers throughout the area had lost power by mid-morning Sunday on the west coast, according to the tracking database PowerOutage.us, which showed nearly half of all tracked customers within the Sacramento Municipal Utility District were experiencing outages.

Counties across the region were placed under a flood watch warning that took effect early on Saturday morning, as the first of two atmospheric rivers brought moderate rainfall to some coastal neighborhoods and up to six inches in others, CBS San Francisco reported. The second storm system is expected to bring heavier rain — up to 10 inches in parts of the North Bay and Santa Cruz mountains — starting early on Monday morning.

"A steady stream of atmospheric river events continue to batter California through early this week with the most potent system arriving on Monday," the National Weather Service's Sacramento office said in an alert. "In this weather pattern, additional rain on saturated soils will lead to considerable flood impacts, including rapid water rises, mudslides and burn scar debris flows."

The office noted that "widespread mountain snow and high winds will also produce issues across the state," while forecasters at the weather prediction center warned that snowfall in the Sierra Nevada mountains could exceed five feet as the more potent storm system rolls in.

"The West Coast remains under the target of a relentless parade of cyclones that form and intensify over the Pacific Ocean while moving directly toward the North American continent," the National Weather Service wrote in a bulletin, which is valid from Sunday until Tuesday.

"Two major episodes of heavy rain and mountain snow are expected to impact northern and central California during the next couple of days," the agency said, adding that the expected "onslaught" of precipitation could prove to be especially damaging because it comes on the heels of other severe storms that have battered portions of the state since late last month.

"With terrain already saturated from previous rainfall, additional bursts of heavy rain will lead to a heightened threat of flash flooding and rapid rise of river levels," the National Weather Service warned. "The longevity and intensity of rain, combined with the cumulative effect of successive heavy rain events dating back to the end of December, will lead to widespread and potentially significant flood impacts."