A series of deadly and destructive storms has led to flooding and power outages.
Dangerously stormy weather continues to wallop California, drenching the drought-stricken state with a sudden and near constant onslaught of rain and snow, leaving a trail of destruction.
The National Weather Service has warned of a "relentless parade of atmospheric rivers" in the West Coast over the coming week. President Joe Biden has issued an emergency declaration for California, while local authorities have ordered thousands of residents to evacuate.
Rivers for roads, fallen trees, massive sinkholes, homes underwater: these images show just some of the widespread devastation left behind by the recent storms in California.
-ABC News’ Moe Zoyari
More than half of a foot of rainfall is in the forecast for the West Coast over the next week, from California to Washington state.
Some areas of California have already recorded 3 feet of rain since Christmas.
In the last two days, Ventura County counted 18.31 inches of rain, while Santa Barbara County got 17.17 inches and Los Angeles County 11.19 inches.
Meanwhile, some areas in the Sierra Nevada mountain range are at 257% of normal for snowfall to date.
Northern California’s reservoirs are also filling up quickly. As of Wednesday morning, Shasta Lake was at 41% of capacity or 67% of the average storage for this date; Lake Oroville was at 46% of capacity or 85% of average storage for the date; and Folsom Lake was at 42% of capacity or 100% of the average storage for the date.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
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
