Millions of people in the US state of California are currently looking outside and see snow or rain instead of a blue sky. A violent winter storm threatens the sun-drenched west coast state with snowstorms, flooding, avalanches and freezing temperatures this weekend. More than 100,000 customers in California were without power overnight, according to poweroutage.us.

The National Weather Service temporarily issued a flood warning for Los Angeles and other cities. Downtown Los Angeles, Beverly Hills and Santa Barbara were among those affected. The broadcaster CNN has already reported flooded streets in and around Los Angeles. For the first time in decades, parts of the US state have also received a blizzard warning. This is what violent snowstorms with severe temperature drops are called in North America.

Snow-capped mountains could already be seen in pictures from California. Meteorologists expected more snow at higher altitudes and thunderstorms at lower altitudes for the weekend. In isolated cases, up to 2.5 meters of snow could fall, CNN reported, citing the weather service. Snow has fallen even in unusual places: snow or sleet is said to have been sighted near the famous "Hollywood" sign, the weather service reported on Twitter.

A violent winter storm caused chaos not only in California. In the US state of Michigan, around 465,000 customers were still without electricity overnight, as "poweroutage.us" reported. Previously, the number of affected households was even higher there.