For California, ‘One of the Most Dramatic Weather Days’

It’s Monday. Yesterday was a weather day for the record books — and today could be one, too. Plus, the California State Senate has a new leader.

If you’re in California, you’ve probably been through some wild weather over the past 24 hours. The National Weather Service called Sunday “one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory.”

California’s biggest storm so far this year whipped the surf along the coast, sent tree branches skittering through streets and snapped power lines as it pummeled the state. In much of Northern California, the storm’s howling winds seemed to wreak more havoc than the driving rain did: In some areas, gusts reached 88 miles an hour, rivaling those of a Category 1 hurricane.

As of 5 a.m. today, more than 560,000 homes and businesses in the state were without power, with the worst outages in the San Joaquin Valley, the Bay Area and the Central Coast. That was down from more 800,000 at 10 p.m. Sunday, as utility crews worked overnight to start getting the lights back on.

Forecasters warn that the worst may still be ahead for California. An atmospheric river hovering over the Los Angeles region is expected to bring precipitation to already soaked lowlands and mountains well into this evening, and the rain may continue into tomorrow. A number of roads, especially in canyons around Los Angeles, were affected by mud and rockslides overnight.