People walk through an area of destroyed structures in Flatwood, Ala., on Nov. 30. Tornadoes damaged numerous homes, destroyed a fire station, briefly trapped people in a grocery store and ripped the roof off an apartment complex in Mississippi and Alabama. Photo: Butch Dill/AP

RENO, Nev.—The first of back-to-back winter storms brought one foot of snow and an avalanche warning to the Sierra Nevada on Dec. 1, closing schools at Lake Tahoe and intermittently shutting down interstate traffic West of Reno.

A winter storm warning remained in effect through early Dec. 2 from Mammoth Lakes south of Yosemite National Park to about 200 miles North of Lake Tahoe.

A new storm watch was in effect late Dec. 2 through the weekend, with as much as three feet of snow possible at the highest elevations by Dec. 4, the National Weather Service said.

“Our next storm is still on track to be colder, slower and wetter than today’s storm,” service forecasters in Reno said late Dec. 1.

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Mount Rose Ski Tahoe reported about a foot of snow at the top of the resort Southwest of Reno and at least eight inches  was reported 80 miles North of Reno at Susanville, California, where six inches fell in just over two hours.

At Lake Tahoe, all schools were closed Dec. 1 on the north shore at Incline Village and at South Lake Tahoe, California. The storm out of the Pacific Ocean roared ashore in Northern California early Dec. 1, bringing heavy rain that snarled the morning commute and prompted flood advisories in the San Francisco Bay Area and South into the Central Coast.

Wind speeds reached 40 mph with an isolated gust of 50 mph reported in the Marin Coastal Ranges, the National Weather Service office in San Francisco said. About a half-inch of rain fell from Vallejo to Sacramento.

Down South, one of dozens of tornadoes kicked up by a severe weather front that spent two days rolling from East Texas across several Southern states, the storm shocked people from their sleep in Flatwood, a sparsely populated community not far from the Alabama state capital of Montgomery.

The storm system fueled by record high temperatures spawned dozens of tornadoes on Nov. 29 and early Nov. 30 as it moved from East Texas through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and neighboring states. Tornadoes damaged homes, destroyed a fire station and ripped the roof off an apartment complex in Mississippi. In Alabama, the same storm system also destroyed a community center and left a mess of toppled trees, downed power lines and debris.

A total of 73 tornado warnings and 120 severe thunderstorm warnings were issued from the afternoon of Nov. 29 to the morning of Nov. 30, said Matthew Elliott, a meteorologist at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Oklahoma.

Hail stones crashed against the windows of City Hall in the small town of Tchula, Mississippi, where sirens blared as the mayor and others took cover. “It was hitting against the window, and you could tell that it was nice-sized balls of it,” Mayor Ann Polk said.

Record high temperatures in Texas and Louisiana intensified the storm front before it moved into Mississippi and Alabama, forecasters said Nov. 30.

Shreveport, Louisiana, heated up to 81 degrees on Nov. 29; and Tyler, Texas, hit 82 degrees, according to the National Weather Service in Shreveport. Both those marks broke the old record of 80, set in 1949, the weather service said.

As these severe weather conditions continue impacting and striking America, the divine reasons as to what is happening and why continue unfolding and is backed by scripture and the warnings of Allah’s (God’s) divine servants, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad and the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan.

“This is God’s sanction on America. Watch the weather. Every year the weather has gotten worse and worse and worse,” the Minister previously warned via Twitter. Like his teacher, the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches, Allah (God) is using the forces of nature to humble America.

“America is under such divine attack now, in storms as rain, hail and earthquakes—(the latter is yet to take place). A terrific drought is on its way, too, against America. The Book must be fulfilled. The Bible and Holy Qur’an both refer to all that I have said,” Mr. Muhammad wrote in His seminal book, “The Fall of America.”

(Compiled from AP reports. Final Call staff contributed to this report.)