California Public Electricity Connection Observation (Placeoutage.us) reports more than 24 inches of rain since October 1, and more through New Year’s Eve
The atmospheric river is a long, narrow region in the atmosphere which can carry thousands of liters of water per second and fueled a parade of storms that dropped thick snow on the mountains.
More than 166,000 people in California were without electricity this morning, according to Poweroutage.us. That was an improvement from the early hours of Thursday, when nearly 196,000 accounts were without power.
There was a chance of rain and wind gusts of up to 50 mph in some areas of central California. Meanwhile, more rain is expected at higher elevations with winds continuing to gust near hurricane-force.
Since October 1, Los Angeles has received more than 24 inches of rain — roughly twice as much as it normally gets for this time period. It is 10 inches above average as most of the precipitation occurs in the late fall and early spring.
Despite snow in the West, it is beginning to warm up in the east after a historic winter storm. Hard-hit places like the Buffalo, N.Y., area, where at least 31 people have died, are trying to recover and clear roads as snowfall lessens.
That means New Year’s Eve celebrations Saturday will likely be dampened in New York City and Washington, DC. Los Angeles is expected to have a soggy new year.
A flood watch was in effect across much of Northern California through New Year’s Eve. Officials warned that rivers and streams could overflow and urged residents to get sandbags ready.
State Highway 49, Highway 99, and Highway 50 in New York City have closed due to Sunday morning precipitation after a day of thunderstorms
There is a chance for rain in New York City through Saturday and the heaviest rains will be in the evening on Sunday. There will be warm temperatures through most of the day.
“The slight risk area mostly highlights places that are already high in soil moisture, burn scars and urban areas,” the Weather Prediction Center said.
An eastbound stretch of Interstate-70 in Colorado reopened Thursday after a nine-hour closure left drivers stranded amid bouts of heavy mountain snow, widespread rain and gusty winds.
Dangerous conditions Tuesday in Oregon left five people dead, including a 4-year-old girl, after severe weather caused trees to fall on passing vehicles, state police said.
The parade of storms that has struck California in recent months has dropped more than 30 trillion gallons of water on the state, refilling reservoirs that had sat empty for years and burying mountain towns in snow.
Multiday precipitation totals as of Saturday morning included a staggering 81 inches (205 centimeters) of snow at the Mountain High resort in the San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles and up to 64 inches (160 centimeters) farther east at Snow Valley in the San Bernardino Mountains.
Thousands of people in the state’s capital were still without electricity early Sunday, less than three days after a storm knocked it out.
The north side of Highway 49 is closed because of flooding and Highway 70, which was partially closed by a slide, is closed. A stretch of Highway 50 was closed in El Dorado County because of flooding.
The Highway 99 was closed south of the Cosumnes River due to flooding. “SR 99 is one of the state’s heavily traveled, and commercially important, corridors,” its website adds.
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 due to operational problems and posted a photo on social media that showed the lift tower surrounded by water.
The map released by the agency showed a wide range of totals from less than an inch (2.54 centimeters) in some areas to over 5 inches (12.7 centimeters) in the Sierra foothills.
The Sacramento Valley and Sacramento Foothills Flooded with the Sacramento Rivers and the Sacramento Valley, Measuring Rainfall and Flood Warnings
The Stockton Police Department posted photos of a flooded railroad underpass and a car that appeared stalled in more than a foot (30 centimeters) of water.
“However, for every day it doesn’t rain or snow during our wettest months, we are drying out,” Margaret Mohr, deputy director of communications for the California Department of Water Resources, told CNN.
The National Weather Service’s office in Eureka says the roads began to flood in the wake of the earthquake. 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.
“Our model forecast information that we have and the other climate indicators that we’re looking at, it does look like that will probably shut off as we go into our early part of April,” Gottschalck said. “And at that point, normal climatological precipitation, for much of California, goes toward zero quite quickly, so we do think there will be a break.”
The weather service said “strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages, and high waves on Lake Tahoe may capsize small vessels.”
Flood warnings and watches were issued on the eastern front of the Sierra and were likely to last through the weekend along some rivers and streams.
“The storm caused flooding across the northern part of the state and it also caused road damage all over the place,” Kevin Stark of KQED told NPR.
According to the National Weather Service in Sacroa, several rivers began to flood, including the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers. Flood warnings were issued for the southern Sacramento Valley and Sierra foothills.
Three communities near the city of Watsonville were also told to evacuate by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office due to creek flooding, while the rising San Lorenzo River waters prompted evacuations in the communities of Paradise Park and Felton.
The Weather Prediction Center said Sunday that the continued rain and cumulative effect of rain events dating back to December would lead to widespread and potentially significant flood impacts.
The emergency crews in the Sacramento County area spent the weekend in the midst of the flooding and had to rescue multiple people by boats and helicopter.
The Amador County Sheriff’s Office shared an image of cars up to their doorhandles in flooding and said there had been reports of flooding, mudslides and trees blocking roads.
Interstate 80, Highway 50, and Soda Springs Reopened after a Day of Snow on Dec. 26, 2017, and Its Extension to the Northern Sierra Nevada
Highway 50 was reopened just after midnight, hours after a section between Pollock Pines and Meyers was closed due to flooding from the American River, while another section was closed over Echo Summit 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.
The National Weather Service advises people to avoid travel in areas with winds of 55 mph or more because of the damage done to trees and roads.
The state of emergency was declared because the atmospheric river has caused significant transportation impacts, rising creek and river levels and flooding.
A winter storm warning is in effect until 4 a.m. Sunday in the Sierra Nevada mountains from Yosemite National Park to Tulare County, where the Weather Service warned travel could be very difficult to impossible.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab reported 7.5 inches of snow per hour between 4 and 5 p.m. Saturday in Soda Springs, about 30 miles from Lake Tahoe, sharing video of thick snow blanketing the area.
The ski resort said on Facebook Saturday that the mountain had over a foot of new snow, and that it would be necessary to work on all the lifts since they were coated in ice.
The California Highway Patrol reported that there was a lot of cars 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.
Since December 26, San Francisco received more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain, while Mammoth Mountain, a popular ski area in the Eastern Sierra, received nearly 10 feet (3 meters) of snow, the National Weather Service reported.
Floods and Mud Slides in Sacramento County, Calif., during the New Year’s Floral Feasibility Parade on New Years Eve
Aerial video from CNN affiliate KCRA showed cars submerged past their doorhandles in flood waters from Highway 99 and the Dillard Street area. Chris Schamber, a fire captain with the Cosumnes Fire Department, told the station “dozens upon dozens” of people had been rescued.
With the area dry on New Year’s Day, spectators began to queue up for the annual floral spectacle.
The widespread rain, mountain snow and strong winds across parts of central and Southern California will continue Wednesday and will gradually clear up Thursday, said National Weather Service Meteorologist Sarah Rogowski.
A man was found dead in a submerged vehicle in Sacramento County on Saturday, and a man in his 70s died when he was struck by a fallen tree at a Santa Cruz park.
Weekend snow also was forecast for parts of the upper Midwest to the Northeast, with pockets of freezing rain over some areas of the central Appalachians. By Sunday evening the storm was expected to reach the central high Plains.
The National Weather Service’s Western Region Headquarters says there is a chance of an even stronger storm hitting the state on Sunday through Tuesday. We encourage everyone to make sure they are ready for the next storm by taking the time over the weekend.
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.
The agencies expects that the flooding from the Cosumnes River and the Mokelumne River could reach these areas in the middle of the night.
People in Northern California who have been affected by floods and mud slides should be aware that the situation may get worse before it gets better.
Statewide destruction of a tree destroyed by a hurricane on New Year’s Eve in Calaveras Big Trees State Park
Over 39,000 electricity accounts were without power in California as of midday Monday, while 20,000 were in Nevada according to Power Outage.us.
Mary Spencer-Gode and other residents gaped at the damage to their street on Sunday, where a tree was felled on New Year’s Eve.
She was talking to Capital Public Radio when she mentioned the wind was going crazy. I heard a big noise and the house moved because we turned our TV off.
“It’s a narrow area of high moist air that gets transported away from the tropics towards the high latitudes, before a cold front arrives,” said Bob Oravec, senior forecaster for the NWS.
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 are dangerous according to forecasters. ThePioneer Cabin Tree was destroyed in Calaveras Big Trees State Park.
The forecasts have been saying for days that the storm could affect land as early as Tuesday night. But they also predicted it would move slowly; as of late Wednesday morning, the system was still approaching the West Coast.
“We’re moving from extreme drought to extreme floods,” said state Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth, warning that burn scar areas and other sensitive terrain could become the sites of dangerous mudslides.
The Los Alamos Hurricane-Like Event Could Be Worst Ever: The Last Bomb Cyclone of the Californian Winter War II
After it rapidly grew, the storm became a bomb cyclone. A bomb cyclone is a low pressure area and it gets stronger in less than 24 hours. Millibars are a unit used to measure atmospheric pressure.
River flooding, mudslides and power outages are just some of the impacts to infrastructure that the prediction center mentioned.
The storms are needed more than ever in order to help alleviate the heat waves, as well as bring in clean water to some areas, said a climate scientist.
“Complications in some areas include decades of over-pumping of groundwater, leading to land subsidence and decreased groundwater storage capability – you can see a couple of low well readings in the San Joaquin Valley,” Rippey told CNN. There is still some water deficit in northeastern and southeastern California.
A study done in 2022 found that climate change will double the danger of a devastating megaflood in California in the next four decades.
The National Weather Service office inSan Francisco said that what really sets this event apart are the conditions that preceded it. Multiple systems over the past week have saturated soil and increased flow in rivers and streams, which set the stage for this to become a high impact event.
“We anticipate that this may be one of the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” said Nancy Ward, the new director of the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, at a late-morning news conference about the threat.
People in the areas that the weather experts cover were warned about the potential for power outages, high wind, debris and felled trees and power lines.
The powerful storm could also lash Southern California with maximum wind gusts near 75 mph, adding the dangers of fallen trees and powerlines to the mix of hazards Californians are facing this week.
The area was hit with a dangerous storm last weekend, causing flooding and mudslides that left two dead and many others injured.
California Bomb Cyclone Flooding Powerful Winds: A State Emergency Declaration Enacted Wednesday (Monday, February 21)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statewide emergency declaration earlier Wednesday, clearing the way to quickly disseminate aid for those affected by the storm – the latest in series that have been wreaking havoc on the drought-plagued state.
A multitude of warnings were issued for residents from southern Oregon to southern California, including flood and flash flood watches, high winds warnings and winter storm warnings.
Firefighters and rescue equipment were stationed near the burn scar areas of seven counties, and five other counties with flooding concerns, as the storm moved towards California, state officials said.
Among the areas ordered to evacuate is Montecito, the site of a mudslide in 2018 that killed 23 people as mud and boulders the size of houses plowed down the Santa Barbara hillsides, splintering more than 100 homes and rupturing a gas main, according to the state’s Office of Emergency Services.
“I’m urging folks to comply with the evacuation,” said Das Williams, first district supervisor in Santa Barbara County. “If you live in that red zone, the one thing that we should’ve learned these past five years is that it’s better to play it safe and to evacuate and comply with the order.”
Emergency shelters andevacuation points were set up in Monterey County in anticipation of the storm.
The state transportation department reported that the road was closed in both directions from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County to south of Big Sur in Monterey County because of rock slides.
San Francisco was under a flood warning as the storm began to bring on flooding, with Mayor London Breed saying that floods are inevitable.
San Francisco fire officials said they rescued a trapped family Wednesday night, sharing images of a crew working to remove a large tree that was on top of a sedan.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/05/weather/california-bomb-cyclone-flooding-powerful-winds/index.html
The San Francisco-San Francisco High Rise Flood and Emergency Management During the Fox Plaza Event with a “Pentent Pineapple Express”
There were reports of glass falling from the downtown high rise in Fox Plaza, but no injuries were reported. The San Francisco Fire Department said in a message that they were not certain if it was wind-related.
Across the bay in Oakland, the city declared a local emergency to prepare for the storm that may cause flooding and public safety issues.
Utility company Pacific Gas and Electric said the storm system “exceeded all expectations,” damaging electric infrastructure and knocking out power to thousands. The company said its crews are working as quickly as possible to assess equipment damaged by the storm, but spokesperson Carina Corral warned that flooding, fallen trees and other obstacles can slow down restoration efforts.
Trees and power lines have been toppled, knocking out electricity and blocking roads and highways. In San Francisco, a tree fell directly on a car, briefly trapping a family inside (more on that below).
Aaron Johnson, vice president of PG&E’s Bay Area region, said hundreds of crews are staged around the region, including some from Southern California Edison who are also aiding in the response.
However, the storm is expected to saturate roads and down trees which may make it difficult for crews to access areas experiencing outages, Johnson said.
“This is definitely going to be ranked up there with one of the storms that I’m going to remember,” Ashley Helmetag, a meteorologist, said in a Facebook video on PG&E’s page.
The National Weather Service said this week that the weather was brought on by a “potent Pineapple Express” that brings low pressure waves from the Hawaiian Islands to the Pacific Coast.
Three deaths in Sonoma County, Calif., from a tree falling into a wind storm and dumping trees onto a Honda sedan
In downtown San Francisco, winds snapped a mature landscaping tree off at its base and dropped it onto a Honda sedan, trapping a family in their car next to the San Francisco Public Library’s main branch. According to the firefighters, the family was ok, thanks to their chainsaws.
“Fallen trees are everywhere in the Bay Area with this current storm,” BART — or Bay Area Rapid Transit — stated, noting that trees had taken down power lines used by transit trains.
At least two deaths have been linked to the bad weather. The Press Democrat reported that a child under 2 years old was killed when a tree fell in the small town of occidental in Sonoma County.
About 50 miles east-southeast of that tragedy, a 19-year-old woman died after driving onto a partly flooded road in Fairfield, Calif., on Wednesday morning. The driver of the vehicle hydroplaned and hit a pole.
Emergency officials are telling people to stay off the roads. Along with flash floods and mudslides, roads were littered with broken trees, power lines and other debris. At higher elevations, some highways have closed due to whiteout conditions.
Huge waves and high tides have damaged piers along the coastline of Santa Cruz County, according to officials.
The bronze sea lion sculpture is still attached by bolts and can be repaired even though it was knocked out by the rough conditions in Sausalito.
The Los Angeles Weather Service Forecasts for the Next Three Days: Rain, Snow, and Wind Counts in the City of San Francisco, Calif.
Belen de Leon, an NBC forecaster in Los Angeles, said the morning will be the rainiest period and that the storm is not over.
“There will be periods of rain and snow throughout the afternoon and evening, with isolated storms,” the NWS office in Sacramento said.
Two large bouts of rain will impact the West Coast over the next few days. The concern is not just the rain, snow and wind, but there will be not much of a break in between events for the water to recede or cleanup to be completed.
Mary Ellen Carol, executive director of the city’s emergency management department, said on Wednesday that there had been flooding in San Francisco.
Weather alerts beyond some that expired Friday are expected to be issued this weekend for places due for a mix of rain and snow. Here’s what’s forecast for millions:
The winds are expected to be less than earlier in the week, but they are still going to cause problems in the valleys and mountains.
“While these winds won’t be on the order of the previous/stronger system it really won’t take much to bring trees down given saturated conditions and weakened trees from the last event,” the weather service in San Francisco posted Friday.
Even a 40 mph wind can do damage when the ground is so saturated from record rainfall earlier this week and the cumulative effect of the new rainfall expected this weekend.
The rainfall over the weekend will bring renewed concerns for local streams, creeks, and rivers. The Colgan Creek, Berryessa Creek, Mark West Creek, Green Valley Creek, and the Cosumnes River all have gauges either currently above flood stage or expected to be in the next few days.
State climatologist Michael Anderson: a high risk warning for the California State Water Project system from a prediction center’s Sunday morning storm
El Niño and La Niña forecast patterns put out by the Climate Prediction Center give guidelines on what the overall forecast can be during a seasonal time period.
During a La Nia, the Pacific Northwest is usually more wet than normal while Southern California is usually less so. The jet stream has a wavier pattern and it is pushing farther north. “
It is not a good idea to use the forecast patterns on a daily basis, but instead the entire season as a whole, according to a professor at Columbia University. This is why you should research the patterns.
There is randomness that isn’t explained by the patterns. It could help us understand why the other year is different.
State climatologist Michael Anderson told a news briefing late Saturday that officials were closely monitoring Monday’s incoming storm and another behind it and were keeping an eye on three other systems farther out in the Pacific.
The city’s communications infrastructure, cellular and internet, is underground so “as we get more inundation from the rain, we’re seeing more failure around those, what we call lifeline systems” for power and communication, said Carroll.
This has led the prediction center to issue a Level 3 out of 4 risk for excessive rainfall for over 15 million people in the state on Monday including those in San Francisco, Sacramento, Monterey, Fresno, and Oxnard. A Level 4 out of 4 “high risk” notice may become necessary for Monday if the forecast guidance continues to increase rainfall totals, the prediction center wrote in their discussion Sunday morning.
The State Water Project system is managed by the California Department of Water Resources and provides water to 27 million Californians and more than one million acres of farmland.
Water Levels and Groundwater Needs in Lake Oroville and San Luis During the First Half of the Valley Year 2021 Photometrically Declined
The prior photos show that as of this week the percentage of historical average for the date stood at 115%, which is a jump of more than half a century from the previous average.
The before images show a “bathtub ring” of dirt around the edge of the lake, marking how far the water levels had fallen. The bathtub ring was underwater again by the late January images.
As the cocktail of rain and snow raise snowpack and reservoir levels, experts remain concerned about the state’s groundwater aquifers, which is another major source of water for residents, agriculture and industry, particularly in the Central Valley.
The reservoir plunged to just 24% of total capacity in 2021. The intake pipes and boat ramps on the lake were exposed, which sent water to power the plant.
According to the California Energy Commission, the plant is capable of generating enough hydroelectric energy to power up to 800,000 homes at full capacity. The hydroelectric power plants generated about one-third of the state’s electricity.
After this winter’s storms, California state water officials announced at the end of January it will increase allocated water deliveries to 30% of requested water supplies this year.
The State Water Project’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Oroville and San Luis — gained a total of 1.62 million acre-feet of water, which is roughly enough water for 5.6 million households for an entire year. An acre-foot is the amount of water needed to one acre a foot deep — roughly 326,000 gallons.
Temperature changes in southern and Mid-Atlantic states as a consequence of the Colorado River drought and February 1 snowpack: Warnings from the Department of Water Resources
Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, warned during the state’s February 1 snowpack survey this month was not looking promising for more rain and snow.
“I will point out that this is a traditional wet month that is actually starting off pretty dry — and given where the forecasts are, that dryness is expected to continue,” she said.
Water officials in California say that while the record-high snowpack and nearly full reservoirs are good news for the state, snow measurements on April 1 are considered the most important when it comes to forecasting the year’s water resources as well as the state of the drought.
The Colorado River feeds Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the country. Record-low water levels in both lakes have triggered mandatory water cuts for some Western states in the last year. Lake Powell has hit a new low this month, and Lake Mead had a new low last year.
Climate change caused by humans is changing water systems around the world and making them more frequent and severe.
The warm temperatures seen in the southern and mid-Atlantic states are noteworthy according to the National Weather Service. On Thursday, both Nashville, Tenn., and Richmond, Va., saw temperatures hit 85 and 83 degrees respectively.
The Los Angeles Area is Snowy and the National Weather Service has issued a High-Redshift Storm Warning for the Next Two Months
The National Weather Service warned boaters on Friday to “seek safe harbor immediately” because of the possibility of severe storms that could produce sudden waterspouts, powerful enough to easily overturn boats. The two counties have a risk of small tornadoes on land.
San Jose, Napa and other parts of the region have been issued a freeze warning for Friday evening through Saturday morning. The sub-freezing conditions will be especially dangerous to unsheltered populations, crops and unprotected outdoor plumbing.
The cumulative snowfall was over 50 inches in Battle Lake and Dupuyer, Montana as well as Park City, Utah.
There is still a chance that there will be some snow in some places. Meanwhile, across the state, temperatures will be below freezing on Friday. Forecasters expect the weather to warm up by Sunday.
The storm warnings will continue until Saturday afternoon. The National Weather Service office in Los Angeles has not issued a storm warning in over twenty years.
An onset of severe weather across the West Coast has spawned unfamiliar wintry conditions at higher elevations, particularly over mountainous areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties, where up to a foot of snow may pair with 80 mph winds, the National Weather Service said.
Kihara told CNN that they had never seen so much snow up here. “We woke up to it. It picked up a lot over the course of the night. Lots of trees are falling and all the roads around us are closed. Power is out and has been mostly gone since Tuesday.”
The heavy snow and strong winds can ultimately result in near zero visibility for those in the area, even when snow stops falling because high winds can blow the flakes off the ground. Extreme caution when travelling has been called out by weather warnings.
The highest elevation in Big Bear Lake in Southern California had between 20 to 40 inches of snow over the course of three days. Many vehicles were stuck on Friday morning and the agency reported it to state officials.
The weather service issued a flash flood warning for the Los Angeles area after bouts of heavy rain, caused some roads in the region to turn into rivers.
The Footprints of Superstorms in Michigan are Still with Power During the Afterglow of Saturday’s Low-Cost Superfluidity
The aftermath of the same weather system that struck California and numerous states spanning the country earlier this week is still affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the Midwest.
The number of customers without power was almost 400,000 in Michigan as of early Saturday afternoon. The two main utilities in the state, DTE and Consumers Energy, have said they hope to have the lights back on for most of their customers by Sunday night.
DTE, one of Michigan’s largest electric providers, is restoring power to stricken areas but cautioned it will not be able to return service to most customers before Sunday.
Over the course of several days, more than 40 inches of snow fell in the southern parts of the state, and people were trapped in the heavy snow, according to the state highway patrol.
Heavy snow caused Minneapolis officials to declare a snow emergency on Friday and the city crews have been plowing and treating the streets. The city received more than 13 inches of rain in a three day period.
According to the Massachusetts State Police, icy conditions are likely to have contributed to a massive pileup on the Massachusetts toll road.
The weather service said that the flooding was over in Ventura County and that there was no longer a threat.
Brian Wheeler, a spokesman for Consumers Energy, said half an inch (1.27 centimeters) of ice weighed down some power lines — equivalent to the weight of a baby grand piano.
In Kalamazoo, Michigan, Allison Rinker was using a borrowed generator to keep her 150-year-old house warm Saturday after two nights in the cold and dark.
A Major Winter Storm Has Caused Bliszard and Flood Warnings Across California During the Las Vegas Snowfall Event
“We were all surviving, but spirits were low on the second day,” she said. “As soon as the heat came back and we were able to have one or two lights running, it was like a complete flip in attitude.”
She said that the ice falling off the trees was so strong she was afraid it would crack. “There’s just tree limbs everywhere, half of the trees just falling down. The destruction is insane.
The low-pressure system was expected to bring widespread rain and snow in southern Nevada by Saturday afternoon and across northwest Arizona Saturday night and Sunday morning, the National Weather Service office in Las Vegas said.
The cold weather in the North and the West did not affect the temperatures in the south. The high temperature for the US on Friday was 93 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius) at Falcon Lake, Texas while the lowest was minus-35 degrees Fahrenheit (1.7 Celsius) near Huntley, Montana.
Much of Portland was shut down with icy roads not expected to thaw until Saturday after the city’s second-heaviest snowfall on record this week: nearly 11 inches (28 centimeters).
Tim Varner sat huddled with blankets in a storefront doorway shielding him from the elements. Local officials opened six overnight shelters but the 57-year-old, who has been homeless for two decades, said it was too hard to push a shopping cart containing his belongings to reach one.
Source: https://www.npr.org/2023/02/25/1159560284/a-major-winter-storm-has-prompted-blizzard-and-flood-warnings-across-california
California had a large number of winter storms during the second half of the 20th century: The impact of atmospheric rivers, flooding, and wind damage
“It’s not doable,” he said. The snow builds up on the cart’s wheels and you can’t get it traction because of slippery spots. So you’re stuck.”
As the Earth becomes hotter, flooding and wind damage from hurricanes will become more common in the US, and so will threats to millions of people.
The problem will only get worse. “The amount of intense storms will increase,” explains Ning Lin, the lead author of the new study.
Lin and her colleagues also found another sobering trend. It is unlikely that two storms will hit the same place in a single day, but it is more likely during the second half of the twentieth century.
When storms do happen, it’s deadly, like when the Gulf Coast was hit by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina in 2005; or when Hurricanes Harvey and Maria ravaged Puerto Rico in 2017).
That’s bad news for multiple reasons. “Communities need to recover from disasters and bounce back,” says Lin. If people are being hit by flooding and wind damage over and over, there’s less time to recover.
It could overload the government’s emergency response. That happened in 2017, when the Federal Emergency Management Agency struggled to respond to three major storms at the same time, and millions of people were left waiting for basic assistance with food and shelter.
Brandon Mendonsa is a farmer in Tulare County. The water is still coming and this is far from being done.
Many welcomed this winter’s heavy rain and snow since it was so desperately needed to replenish the state’s severely drained reservoirs and depleted groundwater.
“This is an unusually high number of storms this winter in California,” said Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the University of California at Los Angeles. “No matter how you slice it, no matter how you make these formal definitions, this is unusually many.”
The state has an average annual number of atmospheric rivers. Many of them were in the middle of a series of storms.
Weak and low-end moderate storms tend to be less impactful and primarily bring beneficial precipitation to the state, he said. Meanwhile, the high-end atmospheric rivers are the big rain and snow producers, which lead to more severe impacts.
Hecht told CNN that these types of atmospheric rivers are typically referred to as “AR families”. We didn’t see the AR families every year, but the stretch of nine we had around New Year was a more active family than we typically see.
California Atmospheric River Tidal Tuesday: Loss of Homes and Property Following a Tree Falls in the Los Alamos
In San Francisco, four people were critically injured when several trees fell on them during a storm on Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.
The San Francisco International Airport reported a ground delay of more than four hours on average because of high winds, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
26 homes were damaged Tuesday at a mobile home park in Santa Barbara County. There were no injuries but several of the canopies and awnings were damaged, according to the Carpinteria-Summerland Fire Protection District.
The state transportation department for the region said visibility is bad today. “Please consider travel when conditions are more favorable. You should be prepared and stay safe if you must travel.
The worry was that heavy rain and snow could worsen conditions for communities still flooded from the previous atmospheric river that pummeled the state – and ended just days ago.
The Yucaipa Fire Chief was part of the operations group that is keeping watch over the El Dorado burn scar, and he said that soil can be humid with a normal rate of rain.
Firefighters across the state have been stationed at burn scars every once in a while to keep an eye on the state when the atmospheric river menaces them.
There are thousands of firefighters and crew members from Cal Fire and National Guard in the state responding to recent storms.
They are not able to see the fire building from a distance. This is instantaneous. It just happens and it’s too late for you to react to it,” Malinowski said.
There are no easy rescues in mudslides, so it’s important for residents to obey orders which aren’t made lightly.
“We understand the gravity of asking people to voluntarily leave their homes, but it’s also weighed with the ability for us to rescue people, knowing that it’s going to be a very difficult – if not impossible – task to get through just tons of tons of dirt and debris where we just literally can’t make access,” Malinowski said.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/21/weather/california-atmospheric-river-tuesday/index.html
Weather-Driven Storms in the Southern and Central Valleys of California: The Importance of Snow for the Soil and Irrigation System
The county said it is increasing patrols during the storm, adding additional sheriff deputies to patrol, and using public works employees for snow plows for 24 hours a day.
The Southern Sierra now stands at 283% of normal and has never been higher since official record-keeping began in the 1950s. The Central Sierra is almost at a record high of 231% of normal, and could reach it soon after this recent atmospheric river storm.
The barrage of storms has also increased soil moisture, which is good for California’s severely parched vegetation. April 1 is the best time of the year for the state to have the highest amount of fuel in plants.
The acres of land which have been fallowed due to the lack of water will likely decrease for the next growing season because of improved water allocations, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Land for rice production in the Central Valley, for example, decreased from 517,000 acres in 2020 to 256,000 acres last year, according to the USDA.
But “those gains may be partially offset in areas where levee breaches caused extensive flooding,” Rippey said. There are areas along the Salinas and Pajaro rivers that may not be planted in ten years because of soilContamination or missing the appropriate window for planting.
The precipitation this winter will definitely help the state’s irrigation system, which has been at a low level for several years.
Andrew Schwartz, the lead scientist at the Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, has previously told CNN that he is cautiously optimistic about the snow going far to alleviate the concerns of the state.
It won’t solve the problem of the groundwater with a huge winter like this, says a climate scientist. There is just too much demand on the system and they expect the western climate to change as a result.
“This is not nearly enough, partly because it’s a supply and demand problem. We still got a lot of straws in the ground,” Swain said. It would take a number of years like this in a row to really make a difference.
The data from the US Geological Survey shows that there are nearly 200 monitoring sites in California that show a variety of conditions from complete recovery to partial recovery of reserves.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/23/us/atmospheric-river-winter-california-drought-climate/index.html
What Happens When the Pacific Ocean Gets There Faster and Deeper Than It Looks: Flood Control and Atmospheric Rivers
According to Peter Gleick, a climate scientist and co-founder of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, we have to allow the rivers to flow differently and let them flood a little more. “Instead of thinking we can control all floods, we have to learn to live with them.”
This is the danger underscored by the storms that descended on the state this week, breaking snow records and overtopping levees.
“There’s a cascading chain of impacts,” said Tom Corringham, a researcher at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego. As you push the flood protection system harder and harder, you get more impacts. You can flood the whole floodplain or a levee break, that’s where the really catastrophic events happen.
An “atmospheric river” is a long, narrow ribbon of moisture that carries water vapor from the tropics to land at higher latitudes. One of the most well known examples is the “Pineapple Express,” which streams eastward from Hawaii across the Pacific Ocean and makes landfall on the West Coast. The term atmospheric river came about due to the high volume of water that these ribbons can contain: a single one could move more than twiceas much water through the sky as flows out of the Amazon.