SAN FRANCISCO -- A huge storm barreled toward Southern California on Monday after flooding highways, toppling trees, cutting power to about 380,000 utility customers and causing rock slides and mud flows in areas burned bare by wildfires across the northern half of the state.
Drenching rains and strong winds accompanied the weekend arrival of an atmospheric river -- a long plume of Pacific moisture -- into the drought-stricken state.
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Rainfall records were shattered and heavy snow pounded high elevations of the Sierra Nevada.
There were widespread power failures in Northern California, with Pacific Gas & Electric reporting Sunday evening that about 130,000 customers did not have electricity, though the utility said power had been restored to about 250,000 customers.
Flooding was reported across the San Francisco Bay Area, closing streets in Berkeley, inundating Oakland's Bay Bridge toll plaza and overflowing rivers in Napa and Sonoma counties.
"It's been a memorable past 24 hours for the Bay Area as the long talked-about atmospheric river rolled through the region," the local weather office said. "We literally have gone from fire/drought conditions to flooding in one storm cycle."
The weather service called preliminary rainfall totals "staggering," including 11 inches at the base of Marin County's Mount Tamalpais and and 4.02 inches in downtown San Francisco.
"It looks like yesterday was the 4th wettest day ever for downtown SF where records go back to the Gold Rush years," the weather service said.
About 150 miles to the north, the California Highway Patrol closed a stretch of California Route 70 in Butte and Plumas counties because of multiple landslides within the widespread Dixie Fire burn scar.
In the state's Central Valley, Sacramento got 5.4 inches of rain, smashing the all-time one-day rainfall record dating to 1880, the weather service said. Interstate 80 was shut down by heavy snow early Monday.
The same storm system also slammed Oregon and Washington state, causing power failures that affected tens of thousands of people. Two people were killed when a tree fell on a vehicle in the greater Seattle area.
California's 2021 water year, which ended Sept. 30, was the second driest on record and last year's was the fifth driest on record. Some of the state's most important reservoirs are at record low levels.
Also Monday, the weather service confirmed a strong tornado that thrashed the southeastern Missouri city of Fredericktown as strong storms that swept the state and moved into Illinois overnight damaged buildings and knocked out power, but left no serious injuries.
The weather service confirmed an EF-3 tornado hit Fredericktown Sunday night, damaging homes, businesses and the main electrical substation that feeds power to the city of about 4,000. A tornado with that rating is considered strong, and wind speeds range from 136-165 mph.
Fredericktown schools called off classes for Monday because of "communitywide power outages and damages incurred by families" in the storm, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.
Fredericktown is about 85 miles south of St. Louis.
The system that hit the Midwest continued east into the Ohio Valley on Monday, said weather service meteorologist Alex Elmore, who is based in St. Charles.
"It has weakened as it moves east," Elmore said. "There is a chance of severe weather later Monday in the Carolinas and portions of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee."
Forecasters are expecting more stormy weather later in the week. This afternoon, parts of Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas could see severe storms, according to the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. Forecasters said those storms could bring large hail, strong winds and isolated tornadoes.
