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As powerful storms battered states across the country this week, hundreds of thousands of people, particularly in California and the Northeast, were left in the dark.
According to PowerOutage.US, over 331,000 homes and businesses in California were experiencing power outages as of 2 p.m. The National Weather Service explained that Californians “are facing another strong Atmospheric River Event,” pointing to dangerous threats of more widespread floods.
On the other side of the country, roughly 75,000 homes and businesses in New York were experiencing power outages as of around 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, followed by over 75,000 in New Hampshire, more than 66,000 outages in Massachusetts, and over 31,000 in Vermont. Pennsylvania also has over 10,000 reported outages.
A winter storm threatened to dump more than a foot of snow in the East – with some areas of Connecticut, Massachusetts and other states already reporting significant snowfall early Tuesday.
According to the National Weather Service, more than 14 million people across the country were until winter weather warnings as of 2 p.m. ET. An additional 15 million saw high wind warnings and more than 858,000 were under flood warnings.
Forecasters warned that strong winds and the weight of snow on tree limbs could down power lines and cause outages.
National power outage map
Tuesday’s power outages were mostly concentrated in California and the Northeast. California, New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont reported the highest numbers, with a combined total of more than 604,000 outages across the country as of 5 p.m. ET.
See the USA TODAY Network’s tracker below to follow power outages nationwide.
California power outage map
Hundreds of thousands of Californians began to lose power heading into Tuesday afternoon as another atmospheric river hit the Golden State.
It was a spike from Tuesday morning, when 45,000 customers were without power.
The majority of outages are in the Bay Area, where 82,000 homes and businesses in Santa Clara County are in the dark, according to the USA TODAY Network’s power outage tracking database as of 2 p.m. PT.
Power company Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said 155,393 of its customers were affected by the outages as of 12:30 p.m. PT.
“The storm is hitting PG&E’s service area hard,” PG&E spokesperson Megan McFarland said in a statement.
‘Rivers in the sky’:What exactly is an atmospheric river?
New York power outage map
Tens of thousands of New Yorkers woke up to no power on Tuesday as this week’s nor’easter barreled into the Northeast.
The state’s total power outages climbed to more 75,000 as of 5 p.m. ET. Rensselaer County, which sits east of Albany, saw more than 14,000 customers – or roughly 18% of the county’s customers – in the dark, according to the USA TODAY Network’s power outage tracking database as of 5 p.m. ET.
On Monday night, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency, advising people to stay home and avoid unnecessary travel due to hazardous road conditions. The National Weather Service reported heavy snowfall across the state.
Massachusetts power outage map
In Massachusetts, more than 66,000 homes and businesses were in the dark as of 2 p.m. Tuesday.
Worcester County, located west of Boston, saw more than 28,000 outages – or almost 7% of the county’s customers – as of 5 p.m. ET Tuesday, according to the USA TODAY Network’s power outage tracking database.
“As rain transitions to snow across more of southern New England, outages are will become increasingly common,” NWS Boston wrote on Twitter early Tuesday.
NWS reported significant snowfall totals across New England on Tuesday, with “huge amounts across higher elevations,” some of which have seen more than 20 inches in six hours.
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Contributing: John Bacon and Jordan Mendoza, USA TODAY.
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