California Floods with Atmospheric Rain and Snow during the First Wave of the Second Large-Scale Winter Storm on New Year’s Eve
More than 15 million people are under winter weather advisories in the Central US due to a powerful storm that battered California on New Year’s Eve.
The Western States are under a winter weather alert on Wednesday, with about half a million people in the higher elevation of the Rockies under a high wind alert. Already, electricity has been knocked out in parts of Oregon, Washington and California, according to PowerOutage.us.
The solution to months of warm weather is precipitation in the form of atmospheric rivers that bring rain and snowfall to the mountains.
In the West, an initial round of lashing rain, wind and snow has moved inland and is set Wednesday to engulf inter-mountain areas. More rain and snow are predicted at the end of the week and there will be a brief lull on Wednesday.
A number of cities were reached by winds at 100 mph or higher. In Mount Hood, Oregon, a wind speed of 106 mph was reported and in North Bonneville there was a wind speed of 104 mph. A gust of 90 mph was recorded in Walker, California, while wind speeds between 80 and 90 mph were reported in several cities.
Parts of California that have been hit with little or no rain in the last year are bracing for a series of powerful storms to start the new year.
The first wave is impacting parts of Southern California and the Four Corners region that includes parts of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Low elevation rainfall and high elevation snowfall will move out of California by late Wednesday morning and remain in the Four Corners area until Thursday.
The avalanche alerts are in effect as lower elevations across the West could see five-day snowfall totals of 2 to 8 inches, with some areas getting as much as a foot. More mountainous high elevations are forecast to receive 1 to 3 feet of snowfall, with isolated areas getting over 3 feet.
The atmospheric river storm was pulling in a big amount of water from the ocean. Flooding and rock slides closed portions of roads across Northern California.
State Route 47, Sacramento, and Sacramento had a Wet December 31-26 Storm, with an Atmospheric River Forecast, Forecasted
More than 150,000 customers were without power in the state’s capital on Saturday, but that number was reduced to at least 40,000 early Sunday.
The state transportation agency reported numerous road closures, including Highway 70 east of Chico, which was partially closed by a slide, and the northbound side of Highway 49, east of Sacramento, which was closed because of flooding. In El Dorado County, east of Sacramento, a stretch of Highway 50 was closed because of flooding.
The last storm moved across the state over the weekend, and the area received more than 8 inches of rain. Oakland saw its wettest day on record on December 31 when 4.75 inches of rain fell, and San Francisco marked its second-wettest day with 5.46 inches – nearly half of its typical December rain.
Weather service meteorologist Courtney Carpenter said the storm could drop over an inch of rain in the Sacramento area before moving south. One ski resort south of Lake Tahoe closed chair lifts because of flooding and operational problems, and posted a photo on Twitter showing one lift tower and its empty chairs surrounded by water.
The Sacramento agency released a map of 24-hour precipitation through Saturday morning, showing a wide range of totals in the region, from less than an inch (2.54 centimeters) in some areas to more than 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) in the Sierra foothills.
The railroad underpass was flooded and a car was trapped in the water in a picture posted by the police department.
There was a flood watch in effect through New Year’s Eve. The officials warned that the water could swell and urged people to be prepared.
According to the National Weather Service, there was a 6.4 magnitude earthquake in Humboldt County on December 20. A bridge that was temporarily closed last week due to earthquake damage may be closed again if the Eel River, which it crosses, gets too high, officials said.
Across California, light precipitation is expected early this week — the first of two smaller systems that forecasters predict will bracket an intense storm called an atmospheric river.
“Strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages and high waves on Lake Tahoe may capsize small vessels,” the weather service in Reno said.
There was a flood watch and warnings issued on the eastern front of the Sierra, with minor to moderate flooding predicted along some rivers and streams.
With the region drying out on New Year’s Day and no rainfall expected during Monday’s Rose Parade in Pasadena, spectators began staking out their spots for the annual floral spectacle.
The Mormon Slough and the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers were flooded, according to the National Weather Service. The southern Sacramento Valley and the Sierra foothills were warned of flooding.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office ordered the communities of Paradise Park and Felton to leave due to the rising waters of the San Lorenzo River.
“Flooding impacts continue to escalate as this rain continues with too many road closures to count at this point,” NWS said Saturday, telling residents to stay put amid reports of rock and mudslides across the foothills and road closures across the Sierra passes.
The crews from the fire district were busy on Saturday, responding to fallen trees, water rescues, and to drivers with 888-548-5870 888-548-5870 888-548-5870 888-548-5870 888-548-5870.
Calling it “Stormageddon,” the Amador County Sheriff’s Office shared an image of cars up to their doorhandles in floodwaters and said there’s been reports of flooding, mudslides and trees blocking roadways.
New Year’s Day Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada Mountains: Highway 50 Reopened and Interstate 80 Closed Lately after the American River Flood
Just after midnight, Highway 50 was reopened after it had been shut down due to flooding from the American River and another section was closed for avalanche control work.
Interstate 80 was also partially closed near the Nevada line midday Saturday “due to multiple spinouts over Donner Summit,” according to the California Department of Transportation.
In Sacramento County and adjacent areas, residents were advised to avoid travel as wind gusts of up to 55 mph toppled trees and covered roads with debris, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service in Sacramento.
The state of emergency was declared because the atmospheric river has caused flooding and transportation impacts in the area.
Travel could be very difficult in the Sierra Nevada mountains, where the Weather Service warned travel could be very difficult to impossible.
The Bear Valley Ski Resort recorded 21 inches of snow, the Sierra Snow Lab recorded a total of 29.9 inches, Sierra attta Ski Resort received 42 inches and Soda Springs received 40 inches.
More than 4 feet (1.2 meters) of snow had accumulated in the high Sierra Nevada, and the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area said heavy, wet snow would cause major delays in chairlift openings. On Saturday, the resort reported numerous lift closings, citing high winds, low visibility and ice.
At the Nevada State line and Colfax, CHP reported “dangerous and treacherous” driving conditions with dozens of vehicles stuck on the I-80 and county roads.
Dozens of drivers were rescued on New Year’s Eve along Interstate 80 near Lake Tahoe after cars spun out in the snow, the California Department of Transportation said. The key route to the mountains from the San Francisco Bay Area reopened early Sunday to passenger vehicles with chains.
Cars were submerged in flood waters in the area of Dillard Street and Highway 99. Chris Schamber, a fire captain with the Cosumnes Fire Department, told the station “dozens upon dozens” of people had been rescued.
At least two people died in the storm, including a man who was found dead inside a submerged vehicle in a garage, and a man who died after being hit by a tree at a Santa Cruz park.
SR 99 is closed due to mudslides and flooding. Sacramento County area of Point Pleasant is under a severe thunderstorm on Monday
Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana are at risk of severe storms on Monday, with damaging winds, strong tornadoes and hail possible. Storms are expected to begin in the afternoon and will last through the overnight hours.
An evacuation order was issued Sunday for the rural Sacramento County areas of Point Pleasant, while Glanville Tract and Franklin Pond were under an evacuation warning.
It is expected that the Cosumnes River and the Mokelumne River will cause flooding in the area in the middle of the night.
The California Department ofTransportation said that Highway 99 south of Elk grove was closed due to flooding. “SR 99 is one of the state’s heavily traveled, and commercially important, corridors,” its website adds.
The flood and mudslide situation may get worse before it gets better according to the forecasters in Northern California.
A number of thousands of electricity accounts in California and Nevada were without power as of midday Monday.
On Sunday, Sacramento’s Mary Spencer-Gode and other residents gaped at the damage on their street, where the storm toppled a massive elm tree on New Year’s Eve.
She spoke to Capital Public Radio about the wind. We turned the TV off so we could hear it and while I was sitting in the kitchen, I heard a noise and the house moved.
Los Angeles, California, forecaster of an imminent ocean-wide blowup by a tropical bomb cyclone and its influence on coastal floods and wildfires
“It’s just a narrow area of high moisture that gets transported away from the tropics towards the higher latitudes,” often before a cold front arrives, as NWS senior forecaster Bob Oravec recently told NPR.
For states along the West Coast, atmospheric rivers are “actually responsible for a good majority of the rainfall during the colder season, which is the season when they get most of their rain,” Oravec said.
The precipitation can be extreme: a single atmospheric river “can carry more water than the Mississippi River at its mouth,” as NPR has reported. The systems’ winds have been warned to be very dangerous. One of the storms five years ago brought down the famous sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
The storm is predicted to weaken as it nears the land and cause more damage, prompting forecasters along the California coast to raise the alarm.
The incoming storm should surpass Saturday night’s storm by at least an inch and more in the upslope areas according to the NWS offices in Ventura and Los Angeles.
Along with flooding, the risk of mudslides is especially high in sites of recent wildfires, where there’s no longer enough ground cover to absorb and retain moisture.
A so-called “bomb cyclone” over the Pacific Ocean – named because of how rapidly it intensifies over a short period of time – will sling a series of fronts at the West Coast. The tropical water coming off a potent river that spans west to Hawaii is fueling these fronts.
The National Weather Service believes that the storm could cause more widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, fallen trees, major power disruptions and the worst of all, likely loss of human life.
Indications of Climate Change in California’s Next-Generation El Nio Superfluid: Why Climate Change is Not the Solution to the West’s Dry Drought
Climate researchers have said it’s a lack of precipitation, higher temperatures, and an increase in evaporative demand – also known as the “thirst of the atmosphere” – that has pushed the West’s drought into historic territory.
Even though these storms bring in some hazard, they are needed more than ever to alleviate the situation of the dry area.
A 2022 study authored by Swain found that climate change has already doubled the chances of a disastrous megaflood happening in California in the next four decades – a storm unlike anything anyone alive today has ever experienced.
“We haven’t seen the mega floods, but we have definitely seen hints of increasingly extreme precipitation even in the middle of what has otherwise been a period characterized by a pretty severe and persistent drought,” Swain said.
Despite this wet start to the year, last year was relatively wet around this time, and there was still no end to the state’s recent El Nio conditions.