One of the strongest storms on the West Coast in decades knocked out power for thousands of people and unleashed strong winds that toppled trees and left two dead in Washington before making its way through Oregon to Northern California.

A powerful storm is bearing down on the West Coast and bringing with it a scary-sounding weather term.

If roughly 45,000 U.S. longshoremen make good on their threat to strike beginning Tuesday, they could shut down 36 ports from Maine to Texas that handle about half the goods shipped into and out of the United States.

U.S. wildlife officials next year will scale up efforts to kill invasive barred owls that are crowding out imperiled native owls from West Coast forests.

The National Weather Service says that around 134 million people in the U.S. are under alerts as an extremely dangerous and record-breaking heat wave broils much of the country.

U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls in coming decades.

Federal researchers indicate the gray whale population along the West Coast is showing signs of recovery five years after hundreds washed up dead on the coasts of California, Oregon, Washington state and Alaska, as well as Canada and Mexico.

Stacker compiled statistics on gas prices in San Antonio using data from AAA.

Bulldozers have built giant sand berms to protect beachfront homes in one of the California coastal cities hit hard this week by extraordinary waves generated by powerful swells from Pacific storms.

Adam Caskey returned to the west coast of Florida where he continues to help his in-laws with repairs nine months after Hurricane Ian made landfall.

It’s 4/20, the high holiday for marijuana enthusiasts, and it’s falling this year as the U.S. government reviews its cannabis policy and as more states have legalized the drug.

Legal marijuana growers along the West Coast are struggling with oversupply, low prices and limited outlets for selling their product.

Eight locations of Dave’s Hot Chicken — a West Coast take on Nashville’s iconic, cayenne pepper-loaded hot chicken — are planned for the San Antonio area.

A lack of security allowed dozens of men to ambush rapper Drakeo the Ruler, who was beaten and stabbed to death backstage at a Los Angeles music festival.

Drew Timme scored 23 points, Chet Holmgren added 22 and top-ranked Gonzaga beat San Francisco 78-62 in a makeup game after their Jan. 6 contest was postponed by COVID-19 issues.

A West Coast rapper known as Drakeo the Ruler was fatally stabbed in an altercation at a Los Angeles music festival.

The US Open is back at Torrey Pines and back to prime-time for East Coast viewers.

A popular drive-thru coffee company on the West Coast is officially making its way to the Alamo City this summer.

FILE - In this Jan. 3, 2019, file photo, a mobile phone customer looks at an earthquake warning application on an iPhone in Los Angeles. An earthquake early warning system operated by the U.S. Geological Survey has been activated in Oregon on the 10th anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan. (AP Photo/Richard Vogel, File)SALEM, Ore. – People in Oregon will be better prepared for earthquakes — particularly important in the Pacific Northwest because experts say “the big one" is coming — as an early warning system launched Thursday, the 10th anniversary of a devastating quake and tsunami in Japan. California already has the system, while Washington state will join in May to complete coverage of the West Coast. “When a Cascadia event happens, the critical seconds of notice ShakeAlert warnings provide will save lives and reduce damage to important lifeline systems,” Oregon Gov.

An atmospheric river storm pumped drenching rains into the heart of California on Thursday as blizzard conditions buried the Sierra Nevada in snow. (Andy Richard/Caltrans District 9 via AP)LOS ANGELES – Evacuations were ordered Thursday in wildfire burn areas prone to mudslides as an atmospheric river storm pumped drenching rain into Southern California while blizzard conditions buried the Sierra Nevada in snow. The system then dropped into Southern California, bringing threats of flash floods and debris flows to areas scorched by recent blazes. Scenic Highway 1 was closed near Big Sur after a section of the roadway collapsed when the cliffside below gave way amid torrential rain. The atmospheric river is part of a major change in weather for California, which had significant drought conditions for months.

WASHINGTON – Election Day ushered in skirmishes near the White House and relatively minor demonstrations in California and elsewhere on the West Coast, but none of the widespread unrest that some had feared in the hours after the polls began closing around the country. In Washington, D.C., police created a wide security perimeter around the White House, where President Donald Trump watched the election returns and hosted guests. Mostly peaceful protests overtook streets near the White House earlier this year following the killing of George Floyd, who was Black, by a Minneapolis police officer. Hundreds of people gathered in a generally festive mood Tuesday night on a street near the White House that was recently renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza by the city's mayor, who is Black. Seattle police advised residents in a tweet about a pair of marches moving through separate neighborhoods.

“And that number will grow.”So far, in this year’s historic fire season, more than 8,200 California wildfires have killed 31 people and scorched “well over 4 million acres in California” or 6,250 square miles, Cal Fire said Sunday in a statement. The astonishing figure is more than double the 2018 record of 1.67 million burned acres (2,609 square miles) in California. Numerous studies have linked bigger wildfires in America to climate change from the burning of coal, oil and gas. Virtually all the damage has occurred since mid-August, when five of the six largest fires in state history erupted. Flannigan, the fire scientist, estimates the area of land burned from wildfires in California has increased fivefold since the 1970s.

Attached in the care package along with Baby Yoda was a note that read as follows:“Thank you, firefighters. Carver said he was setting up a donation booth for firemen when he spotted Baby Yoda — the last on the shelf — and knew he needed to come too. Carver said the support he and the page have received has been incredible, pointing both to the Star Wars fanbase and to the human spirit. Below are a few highlights from Baby Yoda’s journey thus far:You can keep up with Baby Yoda on his journey by keeping up with the Facebook page. RELATED: Celebrate ‘Star Wars’ Day with new ‘Mandalorian’ docuseries on Disney+

NEW YORK – Dodgers star Mookie Betts supplanted Yankees slugger Aaron Judge on Friday for baseball's top-selling jersey in his first year on the West Coast. 50 is the first Dodgers uniform to top the list since MLB began releasing sales rankings in 2010. Betts is in the running to become the second player, after Frank Robinson, to win MVPs in both leagues. Judge slotted second ahead of Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper, who is in the second season of a $330 million, 13-year deal. The Chicago Cubs (Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant) and Yankees (Judge, Cole, Giancarlo Stanton) were the only other teams with three players in the top 20.

Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nations most celebrated wine regions. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)TURNER, Ore. – Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation's most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world. No one knows the extent of the smoke damage to the crop, and growers are trying to assess the severity. In 2018, a California company abruptly canceled contracts to buy grapes worth millions of dollars from southern Oregon vineyards, claiming fears they were tainted by wildfire smoke.

The smoke from dozens of wildfires in the western United States is stretching clear across the country and even pushing into Mexico, Canada and Europe. While the dangerous plumes are forcing people inside along the West Coast, residents thousands of miles away in the East are seeing unusually hazy skies and remarkable sunsets. (Elizabeth Laird via AP)The smoke from dozens of wildfires in the western United States is stretching clear across the country — and even pushing into Mexico, Canada and Europe. While the dangerous plumes are forcing people inside along the West Coast, residents thousands of miles away in the East are seeing unusually hazy skies and remarkable sunsets. But Solum said there's always a chance for more smoke and haze to shift around.

The 9@9: Hurricane Sally; SAPD shoot, kill man; West Coast wildfiresPublished: September 16, 2020, 9:49 amThe 9@9 features some of the biggest stories making headlines at home, around the country and across the globe. Here’s what’s trending.

SAN ANTONIO – Two locals are sharing their experience fighting wildfires on the West Coast and hoping to inspire others to go out and help. Hanna Randle, a St. Mary’s University student, is one of several people who traveled to Arizona and Idaho to fight wildfires over the summer. “Seeing the properties get destroyed -- all of that is very sad.”Randle stressed the need for help is there because wildfires are getting more frequent. “Get out there and help,” Randle said. You need to go out, and you need to something.”Johnson said there are several ways to help if you are interested:

– President Donald Trump and challenger Joe Biden are focusing the presidential campaign on the wildfire-scorched West Coast, with Trump meeting fire officials in California on Monday while Biden declares the fires underscore an urgent need to address climate change. Trump has repeatedly discounted the impact of climate change, walked away from a major international climate agreement and proudly rolled back environmental regulations. Amid that disapproval from the left, Biden over the weekend offered his most pointed criticism connecting Trump’s climate change denialism to the fires. Trump often casts doubt on climate change. In 2015, he stated bluntly: “I’m not a believer in global warming, I’m not a believer in man-made global warming.” After the publication of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report concluded climate change would hurt the economy, Trump said he read it but didn’t believe it.

Jay Inslee on Sunday called climate change “a blowtorch over our states in the West." “The debate is over around climate change. “This is truly the bellwether for climate change on the West Coast," she said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation." “And this is a wake-up call for all of us that we have got to do everything in our power to tackle climate change." “Talk to a firefighter, if you think that climate change isn’t real," the Democratic mayor said on CNN's “State of the Union."

LUBBOCK, Texas – More Lubbock firefighters are being deployed to California to help fight the devastating wildfires on the West Coast. This second group of firefighters will relieve the first group that was sent over last month, according to the fire department. They were first deployed to California on Aug. 21., according to the fire department. More Lubbock firefighters are flying out of Amarillo to California today to relieve the first group that deployed in... Posted by Lubbock Fire Department on Sunday, September 13, 2020These teams of Texas firefighters are among several others and emergency personnel that were called on by Gov. RELATED: Texas firefighters, support personnel deployed to California to fight wildfiresThe governor issued the order Friday, deploying approximately 190 firefighters, 50 fire trucks, and 10 command vehicles from 56 Texas fire departments.

SAN ANTONIO The Hello Kitty Cafe Truck announced it will be continuing its West Coast tour and stop in San Antonio July 11. From 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., the truck will be parked at The Shops at La Cantera, 15900 La Cantera Pkwy, near Barnes & Noble for customers to enjoy exclusive Hello Kitty-themed treats and merchandise. The truck has also incorporated new safety procedures and increased sanitation efforts for guests amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Know before you go: The Hello Kitty Cafe Truck accepts only credit/debit card payments. Related: Hello Kitty Cafe Truck heading to San Antonio next month