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    Forecasters Issue Highest Risk Alert for Tornadoes in the South

    A rare outlook for potentially violent tornadoes is being forecast Saturday.Forecasters believe that particularly intense, long-lasting severe storms at a level typically experienced only once or twice in a lifetime could sweep through this region of the South.Saturday might be one of those lifetime events for someone in that zone. The Weather Service has issued the highest risk for tornadoes today and began issuing tornado warnings for swaths of the Midwest on Friday night.“Flying debris will be dangerous to those caught without shelter,” the Weather Service warned residents in parts of Western Illinois. “Damage to roofs, windows, and vehicles will occur.”An “extremely dangerous” tornado moving at 55 miles per hour was confirmed in Eastern Missouri, according to the Weather Service.These storms are all connected to the intense storm system reeking havoc across the Central U.S. which within the last day has brought damaging strong winds, tornadoes across the Midwest and dust storms and wildfires sweeping across the Plains. Saturday’s storms will be moving extremely fast, and may catch people off guard. They have the potential to form numerous significant tornadoes, some of which could be potentially violent, damaging hurricane-force (greater than 74 miles per hour) and golf ball or even baseball size hail.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Vast Storm Knocks Out Power in North Texas

    The storm is expected to intensify, bringing the threat of blizzards, tornadoes and damaging winds across the central and southern United States.More than 380,000 customers in North Texas were without power on Tuesday morning as a powerful storm with strong winds swept across the region.The storm, part of a system that stretched from Iowa to Texas, was expected to strengthen as it moved east on Tuesday. Warnings were in place for blizzards in the Plains and severe storms across the South, with damaging gusts, hail and possible tornadoes forecast from eastern Oklahoma to Alabama.Flights into Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport were briefly halted, and about 10 percent of departing flights out of the airport were canceled as of Tuesday morning, according to FlightAware, which tracks flight data.A severe thunderstorm warning was in effect in Texas until 8:30 a.m. local time, including for the cities of Palestine, Fairfield and Buffalo, according to the National Weather Service.In southern Oklahoma, more than 20,000 customers were without power, according to the tracking site poweroutage.us. A mobile home in Ada, Okla., was destroyed after a possible tornado hit, according to KOCO-TV, a television station in Oklahoma City. More

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    What Survivors of the L.A. Fires Took With Them

    Pepper Salter Edmiston had given birth to her last child, her seventh, when she decided to take up the hobby. It started with a cookie jar in the shape of a plump woman in a vintage bathing suit, looking skyward as she nibbled on a treat. Then came the Santa Clauses, Humpty Dumptys, cats and […] More

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    Arctic Air Could Bring Dangerous Temperatures to Parts of the U.S.

    And a winter storm could dump up to a foot of snow from the Central Plains to the East Coast.A powerful surge of arctic air from Canada will descend on the Central and Eastern United States this week, delivering record-breaking cold and dangerously low wind chills, forecasters said.A disruptive winter storm is also forecast to bring snow and ice from the Central Plains to the East Coast.The National Weather Service warned that this “widespread extreme cold threat” would send temperatures plunging 30 degrees below average near the Canadian border for the next couple of mornings. Numerous daily temperature records were likely to be broken, with below-zero high temperatures from Montana and the Dakotas to the upper Midwest and sections of the Central Plains. Freezing conditions may reach even the Gulf Coast by Thursday morning.Extreme cold warnings and cold-weather advisories were issued for areas across the northern Plains and upper Midwest down to central Texas, potentially affecting millions of people. More

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    ‘Here We Go Again’: Kentucky Residents Face More Destruction and Anxiety From Storms

    The flood damage over the weekend was not as catastrophic as some previous climate disasters in the state. But the rains still brought widespread havoc, and painful reminders of trauma.As the rains began to drench Eastern Kentucky this weekend, Mimi Pickering looked anxiously out her window in the town of Whitesburg as the North Fork Kentucky River kept rising, and rising, and rising.Would it once again swallow the bridge that leads to the historic Main Street? And would the media and arts education center where she is a board member be damaged, as it was a few years before?“It just looked so much like the 2022 flood — it felt just like, ‘Here we go again, this is unbelievable,’” Ms. Pickering, a filmmaker, said. “It’s been traumatic for people when it rains so heavily — it just adds to that PTSD.”By Sunday, a clearer picture had begun to emerge of the destruction caused by the storms: At least nine people dead throughout the state, with the death toll expected to rise. Nearly 40,000 people without power. More than 1,000 rescues. At least 300 road closures of state and federal roads. Two wastewater systems out of service, including one that was underwater.And more grim news was likely, Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky said during a news conference on Sunday, warning that a snowstorm was expected in the next few days that could dump as much as six inches. He urged Kentuckians to stay home and allow emergency boats, vehicles and workers to reach people in need.“This is one of the most serious weather events that we’ve dealt with in at least a decade,” he said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Southern California Braces for Storm Damage in Wildfire Areas

    An intense storm could cause flooding and debris flows in areas burned by wildfires. Some residents have begun to evacuate.A large swath of California was bracing Thursday for an intense bout of rain that could lead to flooding and cause debris flows in areas recently burned by wildfires.The Southern California regions scorched by flames last month were of particular concern because the soil in those areas can repel water and allow sheets of water to race downhill, collecting debris along the way.In the Los Angeles area, about two inches of rain was expected over the next two days, but some parts of Southern California could receive more than four inches, according to the National Weather Service office in Oxnard, Calif. A torrent of rain within a short period could pose particular problems.“It’s looking like we’re going to be seeing the highest amount of rain that we’ve had in a single storm so far this season,” Lisa Phillips, a meteorologist with the Weather Service, said. Some officials in Southern California began to issue evacuation warnings and orders on Wednesday. In Santa Barbara County, the sheriff’s office ordered evacuations in areas in and around the burn scar of the Lake fire, which burned more than 38,000 acres last year. Residents under the order were told to leave by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, and those who chose not to evacuate were told to prepare to sustain themselves for several days if they had to shelter in place.Track the Latest Atmospheric River to Hit the West CoastUse these maps to follow the storm’s forecast and impact.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Wintry Mess Predicted Across Parts of the Northeast

    Nearly a foot of snow could fall in Boston, and three to five inches of snow and sleet are expected in New York.A winter storm that has been working its way across the country is expected to bring a strong dose of winter weather to the northeastern United States on Saturday, with snow accumulations as high as seven inches expected across Boston and other cities.In New York, snow is expected to begin falling late Saturday afternoon before changing to a mix of rain, snow and sleet into the night. Three to five inches of snow and sleet are possible by Sunday, with even more in some parts of the metro area, according to the National Weather Service.Areas around Boston, where up to an inch of snow an hour may fall on Saturday night, are expected to see snow totals of between five and 11 inches before the storm moves off the East Coast on Sunday.In the Northeast, winter weather advisories and winter storm warnings were in effect until Sunday across New York, New Jersey and New England. Winter storm warnings on Saturday also stretched from Wisconsin through Minnesota and into the Dakotas.This is the second winter storm in a week to traverse the country, creating a dividing line of warmer rainy weather in the south and colder snowy weather to the north — and a messy wintry mix in between.Philadelphia, on the southern edge of this storm, is likely to see a mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain as early as noon on Saturday, and icy roads will make driving treacherous, forecasters warned.How Much Snow To Expect More

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    Spillover in Lake Berryessa Reservoir Gushes for First Time Since 2019

    For the first time in six years, water is gushing through a unique spillway in Lake Berryessa, just north of San Francisco.Footage provided to The New York Times showed Lake Berryessa’s spillway overflowed with water.Jay Cuetara, Solano County WaterBack-to-back atmospheric rivers have dumped buckets of rain across Northern California, filling its rivers to the brim and beyond. The Russian River spilled over its banks in Sonoma County, and in the far reaches of the state, Lake Shasta, a key marker of the state’s overall water levels, has nearly filled up.And just east of Napa Valley, a rare not-fully-natural phenomenon was observed for the first time since 2019: Water began gushing, furiously, through a spillway in Lake Berryessa.The eye-catching event has happened only three other times in the past 20 years, and it has drawn curiosity seekers to the man-made reservoir, 70 miles northeast of San Francisco.“People were taking pictures and videos and just standing in awe,” said Peter Kilkus, the editor of the Lake Berryessa News, who was there Wednesday morning with about two dozen other people.The 72-foot-wide spillway, called a morning glory because its shape mimics the flower, is a unique funnel-shaped cement pipe that sits within the reservoir. (Locals call it the glory hole.)The mechanism is a type of drainage system with water pouring down the pipe and into Putah Creek on the other side of Monticello Dam. The spillway is among a few with that shape in the country; there’s also one at Pleasant Hill Lake in Perrysville, Ohio. More