ICYMI: A tale of fire and ice in the West and wind and rain elsewhere amid a busy weather week in US

It was a week packed with fiery, icy and all-around turbulent conditions. Californians just can't seem to catch a break from frequent wildfire outbreaks. Meanwhile, the huge tornado that terrified residents in Dallas led to an apology from a Texas news station. And in stark contrast to the hellish California blazes, Coloradans woke up to a winter wonderland. Here's a glance back at this week in weather news.

Officials cut power just hours before Kincade Fire erupts

A firefighter battles the Kincade Fire near Geyserville, Calif., on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019. Portions of Northern California remain in the dark after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. cut power to prevent wildfires from sparking during dry and windy conditions. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

The massive Kincade Fire that erupted in the northeastern part of California's Sonoma County has now joined the handful of fires raging across the state. The swift-moving wildfire has decimated more than 19,000 acres since its trail of devastation began Wednesday evening. It broke out just hours after Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) shut off power for almost 180,000 California customers in 17 counties, including Napa, Nevada and Sonoma counties, amid an elevated wildfire threat.

The company said in a preliminary report that there was a problem with one of the transmission towers that had been taped off by Cal Fire near the fire's starting location and time, and transmission lines had remained active despite the Public Safety Power Shutoff (PSPS) to area homes.

Right now, it's not certain whether this caused the Kincade Fire. In fact, it's not clear exactly what triggered the blaze at this point, but the National Weather Service (NWS) recorded a 76-mph wind gust near where the Kincade Fire started in a remote spot near John Kincade Road. Firefighters went door to door in Geyserville, California, ordering people to escape harm's way.

3 more blazes erupt in California

The hellish experience for many California residents continued this week as the Muir Fire broke out Thursday afternoon in Marin County, just a county away from Sonoma County, where the Kincade Fire started. That blaze has scorched 58 acres so far, and is 20% contained as of Friday, the local fire department announced. No one has been ordered to evacuate just yet, and there haven't been any reports of damaged structures thus far.

Meanwhile, the Tick Fire also erupted near Tick Canyon Road on Thursday afternoon in Los Angeles County, and quickly exploded from 200 to at least 850 acres within 60 minutes.

At least six homes were damaged, according to the Associated Press, and about 50,000 people were told to evacuate as the fire inched closer to areas north of L.A.

Adding to the growing list of California wildfires, was the Old Water Fire that began around 2 a.m. PDT Thursday, which prompted mandatory evacuations of parts of San Bernardino. As of Thursday at 8 p.m., local time, the San Bernardino County Fire District said residents with proper identification were allowed to return to evacuation areas.

Twister terrifies Dallas amid severe weather outbreak

The good news is that no one was killed. The bad news, however, is that the EF3 tornado that hit northern Dallas late Sunday night, packing winds of 140 mph, certainly freaked out a lot of people and left widespread damage behind.

Over 150,000 residents were left without power as the tornado touched down in the area north of Interstate 635 and east of U.S. Highway 75. The NWS in Forth Worth confirmed the large tornado's presence via visual evidence. Photos of the aftermath revealed significant damage to cars, houses, schools and business. At least three people were hospitalized, but they're expected to be okay.

Aerial image shot by a drone shows a Home Depot store in Dallas, Texas, that was obliterated after a destructive nocturnal tornado ripped through the area on Sunday, October 20, 2019. (SevereStudios / John Humphress)

On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for 16 counties due to the severity of the storms that impacted the areas. "We were incredibly fortunate, considering the path of the storm, that we have no reported fatalities or serious injuries at this time," said Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson of his "strong and resilient city." Although the tornado hit near Dallas Love Field Airport, the AP reported that the airport escaped damage.

Sunday's severe weather takes deadly turn

Other communities in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma faced the wrath of damaging winds and large hail amid Sunday evening's storms. A tornado occurred near Beckville, Texas, that night, and over in Springtown, hail came down measuring up to 2 inches in diameter.

The EF1 tornado that hit northeastern Arkansas ended in tragedy as at least five people were hurt and one person was killed near Benton County, when 80-mph winds threw a tree onto a house. In Oklahoma, at least three people died as severe thunderstorms struck the area, and two teen boys died of carbon monoxide poisoning as they used a generator following a power outage in Weleetka.

Two EF1 tornadoes were confirmed in Oklahoma's Pontotoc and Seminole counties, but no one was reportedly hurt. Another EF1 tornado developed in Highlandville, Missouri, while a preliminary EF0 tornado hit Republic, Missouri. And in Memphis, Tennessee, an EF1 twister damaged apartment buildings and trees.

News station sorry for delaying severe weather announcement during football game

NBC affiliate KXAS-TV has apologized for not immediately cutting into a televised Sunday night football game between the Dallas Cowboys and Philadelphia Eagles to tell people watching at home about the severe weather.

As the game played out at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, an EF3 tornado was wreaking havoc about 20 to 30 miles away in Dallas. The station didn't tell local viewers right away about the critical severe weather update, which upset some of them. The news station took six minutes to interrupt the football broadcast, but was regularly alerting viewers to a livestream on their website.

"We made a mistake by not immediately interrupting the football game with a tornado warning," the station said in a statement. "When it comes to dealing with severe weather, we know that seconds matter. We should have broken into football programming sooner. We apologize and want you to know that we're doing everything in our power to make sure this does not happen again."

Drenching rain, deadly flooding strikes parts of Europe

As parts of the U.S. tackled intense wildfires and damaging tornadoes, residents in parts of southeast Spain and southern France were drenched with almost three months' worth of rain and subsequent flooding earlier this week. The plentiful rainfall came from a strong storm system that hit the region, and many locations received 2-4 inches of rain.

Some of the soggiest locations got doused with 6-10 inches of rain, with much of this precipitation falling in just one day, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Adam Douty. Beziers-Vias, France, received 9.53 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, and flooding claimed the lives of at least two people in Spain and Italy, the BBC reported.

Howling winds turn Lake Michigan into ocean

A powerful storm system swept across the Great Lakes, unleashing fierce winds and rough seas over Lakes Superior and Michigan. AccuWeather Reporter Blake Naftel, who was in Grand Haven, Michigan, on Tuesday morning, saw the strong storm firsthand as 50-mph winds slammed Lake Michigan's eastern shores.

Powerful waves crashed into the Grand Haven South Pier and Lighthouses in Grand Haven, Michigan, on Tuesday, Oct. 22. (Photo/AccuWeather Video Journalist Blake Naftel)

"The peak wave height observed from my location was around 9 feet, but not to say there were not higher waves over 10 feet," Naftel said, adding that many people were out observing and taking photos of the waves.

Shores were left battered as waves left behind beach erosion. A day before, the same system hit Duluth, Minnesota, with wind gusts of at least 70 mph at times. The wind's direction, according to AccuWeather Meteorologist Brian Lada, resulted in water on the rise in Lake Superior near Duluth, which broke the all-time record water level set in Duluth Harbor that was set in 1985.

Winterlike snowstorm blankets Colorado

Parts of central Colorado were covered in snow on Wednesday night, with 2-4 inches coming down across the Denver area. On Thursday, residents were treated to a winter wonderland as the white powder blanketed the region. Fortunately for those residents, this was not a major snowstorm.

A freshly plowed road in Colorado following the midweek snow.

However, the snow did cause some issues Wednesday evening as drivers on I-70 were left stranded for a short time near Denver. Overall, travel interruptions were minimal, leading the Denver Police Department to congratulate drivers via Twitter, stating, "you held it together with only 2 puffer reports and just 21 traffic crash reports from 7 to 9:30 a.m.!" Only two flights were canceled out of Denver International Airport.

Higher elevations saw a fair amount of snow, as over 19 inches were measured near the town of Genesee, while 14 inches fell around Kittredge. Snowfall in San Isabel, Colorado, reached the 20-inch mark. Ski resorts received a boon in the Colorado Rockies as snow blanketed the slopes.

The snow that covered Colorado later moved south into areas of eastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle. The panhandle and northwestern Oklahoma received between 3-6 inches of snowfall in some spots, while the NWS in Amarillo, Texas, reported the occurrence of thundersnow late on Thursday morning.