A blizzard warning has been issued for Los Angeles for the first time in more than three decades.

The “cold and dangerous” winter storm that has struck large parts of the US is set to sweep to the usually balmy southern part of the West Coast, the National Weather Service warned.

There could be as much as 1.5m (5ft) of snow to fall in some Los Angeles mountains, increasing the risk of avalanches – with winds as strong as 75mph (120 kph) and potential floods.

This is the first blizzard warning to impact Los Angeles since 1989.

Karen Krenis said: “I have lived in California for 30 years, and I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Evacuation warnings were issued in Ventura County for four areas that were considered unstable after being hit hard by storms last month.

Temperatures are set to plummet well below normal in the state, with homeless people at severe risk.

Terry Stephens, who lives in a trailer in Palmdale, was temporarily placed in a hotel room after a freezing night on Wednesday.

She told the Los Angeles Times: “It was frigid; your bones ache and you can’t get warm. I had three blankets on me last night and I was still freezing. Nothing helped.”

The storms have already hit northern parts of the US for days, paralysing roads, forcing schools to close, and causing blackouts to nearly a million homes and businesses.

Michigan was hardest hit with more than 820,000 people without electricity at one point, but further outages were reported in Illinois, New York and Wisconsin.

Some 3,000 power lines were also knocked down and a Michigan fireman died on Wednesday after encountering a downed power line in the village of Paw Paw, authorities said.

Air travel was affected, with more than 2,000 flights grounded and nearly 14,000 delayed across the US.