California storms updates: Woman found dead in submerged in car

A back-country skier died in Nevada’s Spring Mountains on Monday after getting caught in an avalanche, authorities said.

The victim was identified as Punan Zhou, 32, of Las Vegas, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

Zhou was among a group of five skiing in an unmaintained area of Mummy Mountain, the second-highest peak of the Spring Mountains, located near Las Vegas within the Mount Charleston Wilderness Area and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest. A slope gave way and swept Zhou about 500 feet down the mountain, police said.

The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for the area on Monday.

Yet another storm is expected to hit the West Coast on Wednesday, dumping more rain and snow over Northern California while offering some respite to Southern California.

Parts of coastal Oregon could see waves as high as 35 feet from this storm.

As of Wednesday morning, 12 U.S. states in the West were under severe weather alerts for high winds, floods, avalanches and heavy snowfall.

But any break this storm provides will be brief, as a much larger weather system is in the forecast for this weekend, bringing torrential rain, heavy snow and gusty winds to the entire state of California, from San Diego to Redding.

Over the next seven days, the deluge will impact Oregon and Washington state as the storms move farther north and become more widespread.

Part of the western storm that hit California on Tuesday will sweep across the country, bringing severe weather to the South on Thursday with threats of damaging winds and an isolated tornado. This storm will move into the Northeast on Thursday night with mostly just rain.

-ABC News’ Max Golembo

Santa Barbara County announced Tuesday that it’s lifting all its evacuation and shelter-in-place orders but warns that flooding may be present in certain parts of the county.

On Monday, Santa Barbara received a record 4.12 inches of rainfall.

At least 17 people are confirmed dead in California because of the powerful storms slamming the state, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

More than 44,000 people are under evacuation orders, Newsom said at a press conference on Tuesday.

Over 142,000 customers are without power throughout the state.

"We are not out of the woods,” Newsom said.

The storms are expected to impact the state until Jan. 18, according to the governor.