Tens of thousands of homes in Washington state lost power Tuesday and downed wires or trees locked some highways as Northern California and the Pacific Northwest started feeling the effects of a powerful atmospheric river event,

A major storm swept across the northwest U.S. Tuesday evening, battering the region with strong winds and rain and causing widespread power outages and downed trees that killed at least one person. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks through Friday and hurricane-force wind warnings were in effect as the strongest atmospheric river — a large plume of moisture — that California and the Pacific Northwest

A powerful winter storm brewing near the Pacific Northwest known as a bomb cyclone is dragging an atmospheric river.