The National Weather Service warned of a “cold and dangerous winter storm” through Saturday. As much as 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow could fall in some mountains near Los Angeles, which could create whiteout conditions as winds gust to 75 mph (120 kph) and an increased risk of avalanches, forecasters said.
The weather service issued rare blizzard warnings for Southern California mountain areas and urged drivers to avoid dangerous roads.
Storms already have battered the Plains states and northern regions of the country for days and the National Weather Service predicted continuing problems from ice, snow and freezing rain into the weekend, AP reported.
Widespread power outages were reported in Michigan, Illinois, California, New York and Wisconsin, according to the website PowerOutage.us.
The largest outages by far were in Michigan, where at one point more than 820,000 customers were without electricity, mostly in the state’s southeast corner. Some 3,000 power lines were knocked down after being coated with ice as much as three-quarters of an inch thick and crews were struggling to get the juice back by the end of Sunday, utilities said.