California Warned of Massive Blackouts as Urgent Weather Alert Issued

Parts of California are bracing for power outages as high winds were forecast to whip through the state from Wednesday night into Friday.

"Damaging winds" were expected throughout the prolonged windy period in the state, as well as in most of Nevada and some of northwestern Arizona beginning on Wednesday evening. The winds are occurring behind a winter storm system bringing heavy snow to Colorado, but National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Craig Shoemaker told Newsweek that California isn't expecting any rain or snow from the system. Instead, strong winds could bring substantial power outages.

"Damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines," the high wind warning for the Hanford, California, region said. "Power outages are expected. Travel will be difficult, especially for high profile vehicles."

The NWS warned that wind gusts could reach 75 miles per hour in the Reno, Nevada; Sacramento, California; and Hanford and San Diego, California, regions.

In some parts of the state, power outages were expected to be "widespread." As of Wednesday morning, there were no widespread power outages yet in California, according to the PowerOutage.us website.

Shoemaker said "severe damage" from the winds was possible, but it's difficult to predict the damage caused by winds beforehand.

"There's potential for quite a few trees to come down and quite a few power outages," he said.

For California, the NWS warning said that the highest winds were expected above 4,000 feet in elevation in Sacramento. Winds in Nevada could blow even stronger.

"Ridge wind gusts over 100 mph. Strongest winds will be in the Sierra high country and down the Chalfant Valley," the warning said.

The most substantial road impacts from the storm will be on Highway 14 in Los Angeles; Highway 395 in Reno; and Highway 14, Highway 58, Highway 178 and the U.S. highway in Hanford.

In addition to the high wind warning, much of California was under a wind advisory. The Los Angeles region was under a high wind watch.

"Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects and make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles," the advisory said. "Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result."

The winter storm system causing the winds is expected to bring heavy snow to Colorado and surrounding states beginning on Wednesday. Winter storm–related warnings and advisories were in place for seven states on Wednesday morning—Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, northeastern Nevada, northern Arizona and northern New Mexico.

Up to 14 inches of snow was expected to fall in Denver, potentially making the incoming storm Colorado's snowiest of the season.