A “double storm” hits the coast of the United States

Heavy rain and snow crippled the US Northeast on Tuesday, with power outages and flight cancellations, as the West Coast also struggled between two storms and an unusually wet winter.

“Double storm! one on each coast,” the US Weather Service (NWS) warned, citing “significant flooding threats in California” and “the danger, if not the impossibility, of traveling to the Northeast due to snow and coastal flooding.”

And in the northeast, the NWS warned, “the most significant impacts are expected until Tuesday night into Wednesday” with “heavy snow” and “strong winds.”

The dual phenomenon, which is somewhat rare in the United States, comes after several severe weather events, such as a series of storms in January in California that killed 20 people, and an extremely heavy December snowfall in Buffalo and its region. , in the northeast, killing at least 39 people.

While it is difficult to establish a direct link with climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.

Watsonville, California | France Press agency

The storm and high winds caused power outages in the Northeast on Tuesday, affecting more than 240,000 homes, according to Power Outage.

New York’s LaGuardia Airport warned that expected disruptions would include flight delays or cancellations.

At Syracuse Airport, near the border with Canada, passengers had to be evacuated from a plane that left its runway and several flights were cancelled.

Schools are closed in Massachusetts – which could see up to 60cm of snow – and in New Hampshire, where dozens of local elections scheduled for Tuesday have been postponed.

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On the West Coast, the National Weather Service warned of “heavy rain risks in central and southern California,” which could cause more flooding in the coastal state, which has already experienced such disturbances several times in recent weeks.

This weekend, homes were flooded and cars were submerged after the Pajaro River overflowed, breaching a dam on Friday and Saturday night and causing the evacuation of thousands of people.

Watsonville, California | France Press agency

The most populous state in the country with a population of 39 million people, California experiences a particularly rainy winter.

The current storm, like most of the other storms this season, is being fed by an “atmospheric river,” a giant funnel of rain carrying water vapor stored in the tropics, often around Hawaii.