Weather Forecasts for the Lower Mississippi River Valley and South Central California through the Early Stages of I80’s on Wednesday and Thursday

All 11 Western states are under winter weather alerts Wednesday, with about half a million people along the higher elevations of the Rockies under high wind alerts as gusts could reach Category 1 hurricane strength. Already, electricity has been knocked out in parts of Oregon, Washington and California, according to PowerOutage.us.

In the northern and central parts of the state there will be widespread rains of 2 to 4 inches, but higher amounts of 5 to 7 inches are possible for the foothills.

Parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Louisiana are at risk of severe storms with damaging winds, tornadoes, and hail. Storms are expected to begin in the afternoon and will last through the overnight hours.

As the system heads east Tuesday, it’s likely to impact a large swath of the Lower Mississippi River Valley. Areas including Baton Rouge, New Orleans and Shreveport in Louisiana and Jackson, Mississippi, could see tornadoes, high wind gusts and damaging hail.

To the east, residents in Fargo, North Dakota, are expected to see snowfall over 6 inches and will be under a winter storm watch from late Monday night until late Wednesday night. Duluth, Minnesota, could also see 6 inches of snow and will be under a winter storm watch starting Tuesday morning.

• Also Saturday: An additional 1 to 2 feet of snow threaten to make travel dangerous in areas above 5,000 feet in mountains of Northern and central California, the Weather Prediction Center said.

There was a long stretch of I 80’s that was closed on Saturday due to the blowing snow and near-zero visibility caused by the storm.

The storm dropped up to 7.5 inches of snow on the Sierra region, according to the NWS in Reno. The Tahoe basin saw 20 to 24 inches of snow at lake level, with roughly twice that amount above 7,000 feet.

The Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort is in the Dark: More than 30 inches of snow and 70 inches of rain over the past two days from Santa Monica, California,

“It looks a lot like Christmas out here,” Deutschendorf said. It was stuck to everything, and it did not come with a lot of wind. It is like a picture postcard.

The snow totals so far are impressive, and he is cautiously optimistic about this precipitation putting a big dent in the state’s dry spell.

“We’re Buried,” the Palisades Tahoe Ski Resort wrote on its website Sunday, sharing photos of thick snow covering the ski resort in Olympic Valley, California.

This is definitely a storm to remember. We’ve now received 7.5 feet of snow since December 1st. In just a single day, we received more than 30 inches of snow, making it the 6th largest snowfall total on record.

This weekend’s forecast comes as about 60,000 homes and businesses in California are still in the dark from a deadly storm system that over the past two days whipped up damaging winds, dangerously heavy rainfall and heavy snow in much of the state as well as southern Oregon. Before that, a New Year’s weekend storm system also had produced flooding.

The atmospheric river – a long, narrow region in the atmosphere that can transport moisture thousands of miles – is the reason flood watches were issued for over 7 million people across much of the West Coast, including Seattle and San Francisco.

More than 15 million people in the West are under wind alerts from the National Weather Service through at least Tuesday evening as the storm system pushes inland.

In an area stretching for hundreds of miles along the coast, National Weather Service offices from Los Angeles to Eureka, Calif., and Medford and Portland, Ore., alerted people to the threat of damaging winds, with peak gusts expected to top 60 and 70 mph in some areas.

Strong winds in Portland could knock down trees that have been weakened by weather extremes in recent years, arborist Colin Bourgeois told CNN affiliate KATU.

“The consecutive dry summers that we’ve had, especially the heat events like the heat dome, that really damages trees and it takes up so much of their energy to fuel their immune systems to fight off pathogens,” Bourgeois said.

Sacramento, Calif., New Year’s Eve and Beyond with a Wet and Wet Weather Forecast from the Downtown San Francisco NWS

San Francisco’s downtown NWS site recorded 5.46 inches of rain on Dec. 31 — the second-wettest day at that location in more than 170 years, the NWS said.

Over the coming weekend, “additional rainfall amounts of 3 to 6 inches, with locally higher totals forecast for northern California will likely exacerbate flooding concerns over already saturated soil,” the weather service warned.

• Saturday: The accrual of back-to-back heavy rainfall events could lead to even more significant flood impacts possibly including rising waters and mudslides in Northern and central California. There is also a possibility of flooding and debris flows.

“Say goodbye to the warmth,” the National Weather Service in Los Angeles tweeted Monday. The drop in temperatures between today and Tuesday will be big. It is expected that the storm system will cause 15-20 degrees of cooling.

“Periods of rain and snow will continue into the afternoon and evening,” the NWS office in Sacramento said, adding that people could see isolated thunderstorms.

The latest in the series of storms are expected to reach the coast Wednesday morning, and while the entire state will see impacts by the end of Thursday, Northern California and the Bay Area are likely to see the worst of the weather.

New Year’s Eve celebrations will likely be sparse in New York City and Washington, DC. Los Angeles is expected to have a wet new year.

There was a flood watch in effect through New Year’s Eve. The officials warned that there could be flooding if the rivers and streams overflow.

Overflows of snow, wind and rain: California and Oregon is on track to be the 2nd-wettest day in the Bay Area

The chances of precipitation will go up this weekend, with the heaviest precipitation expected between 7 and 1 a.m. Sunday. Temperatures will be near 50 through most of the afternoon into Sunday.

The Weather Prediction Center said that the slight risk areas highlight places that are already high in soil hydration, burn scars and urban areas.

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.

Five people died in Oregon Tuesday after trees fell on vehicles, according to the state police.

The low-pressure storm system moved in from the Pacific, bringing damaging winds, excessive rainfall and extremely heavy snow over much of California and into southern Oregon through Thursday.

103,000 homes and businesses in California and Nevada were still without power as of Sunday night, compared to a high of 300,000 on Saturday, according to Poweroutage.US.

At one point Saturday, officials ordered residents in Wilton – roughly 20 miles from Sacramento – to leave the area immediately, warning that rising water may spill over onto roadways and cut off access to leave the area. Just about two hours later, Wilton residents were told to shelter in place after water made roads “impassable.”

The National Weather Service in the Bay Area said that Downtown San Francisco was on track to become the second-wettest day on record.

State Route 99 is Flooded with Water, a Weather Service Meteorologist Explains. The California Department of Transportation’s Disaster Closed Highway 99 South

The flooding caused the California Department of Transportation to close Highway 99 south of the Cosumnes River. One of the state’s heavily traveled and commercially important corridors is State Route 99.

The storm could dump over an inch of rain in the area before moving south, according to a weather service meteorologist. 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 map released by the agency shows a wide range of totals, from less than 2 inches in some places to more than 12 inches in the Sierra foothills.

There was a flooded railroad underpass and a car that was unable to drive due to high water in a post by the Police Department.

“In a warming climate, the severity of droughts in places like the Southwest and California are being driven by increasing evaporative demand,” he said. The atmosphere wants more water as temperatures rise, so we don’t see as much precipitation as we used to.

The earthquake that struck in Humboldt County caused the roadway to flood, according to the National Weather Service. The bridge was closed last week because of earthquake damage and may be closed again if the river gets too high.

Floods in Sacramento and Southern California during the First of Three Months of the Sacramento River Eruptive System. The Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District and Amador County Sheriff’s Office Investigated Floods on Saturday

It was the first of several storms expected to roll across the state in the span of a week. Saturday’s system was warmer and wetter, while storms this week will be colder, said Hannah Chandler-Cooley, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

The weather service in Reno says that strong winds could cause tree damage and lead to power outages.

Flood watches and warnings were issued on the Sierra’s eastern front, which was expected to cause minor to moderate flooding along some rivers and streams.

The storm caused the state to be evacuated and it caused a lot of traffic problems, according to member station KQED’s Kevin Stark.

The Cosumnes, Mokelumne, and Mormon rivers all began to overflow on top of urban flooding. There were flood warnings for the southern area of the valley.

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.

Because of the longest dry time in recorded history, the ground can only absorb so much water, which is why many areas have already reached their saturation point. As a result, the influx of water is expected to unleash major flooding in some places.

On Saturday, the crews of the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District responded to fallen trees on homes and cars and water rescues, as well as to drivers whose vehicles became disabled after driving through standing water, officials said.

The Amador County Sheriff’s Office used a photo of cars in floods and said there were reports of flooding, mudslides and trees blocking roads.

Sacramento County Reopened Highway 50 After the American River Flooded with More Than 200 Days of Snow, and Floods in the First Day of the Sacramento Flower Parade

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.

In the areas of Sacramento County, residents were told to avoid travel due to wind gusts of 55 mph that blew trees and debris from the roads.

The county proclaimed a state of emergency, saying the atmospheric river has caused “significant transportation impacts, rising creek and river levels and flooding” in the Wilton area.

The Weather Service said snow could accumulate up to 2 feet above 7,000 feet, and up to 5 feet above 9,000 feet.

Over a foot of new snow fell at Mammoth Mountain’s Main Lodge Saturday, the ski resort said on Facebook, adding that work will take place across the mountain since all lifts were coated in ice and “avalanche danger is extremely high.”

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.

Some people were trapped in their cars after the San Bernardino and Orange counties were flooded. There were no major injuries reported.

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.

Another round of heavy showers was also forecast for Southern California on Tuesday or Wednesday, the National Weather Service’s Los Angeles-area office said.

The oldest person killed in the storm was a man who died when he was struck by a fallen tree at a Santa Cruz park, according to officials.

Then came more flood worries: Sacramento County authorities on Sunday escalated an evacuation warning for the community of Point Pleasant to an evacuation order, saying flooding was imminent and would “become incredibly dangerous after sunset.”

The flooding from the Cosumnes River and Mokelumne River could reach the areas in the middle of the night, according to the agency.

There’s a message for people in Northern California who are being hit by floods and mudslides, that the situation could get worse before it gets better.

It’s the third atmospheric river to hit the region in less than a month and some parts of the Russian River are at risk of flooding. In areas where the soil already is saturated with rain, the storm’s high winds could cause serious damage, says the NWS.

California Flood Warning in Light of a Long-Term Elm Tree-Like Falling Elm on Mary Spencer-Gode’s Street

As of midday Monday local time, around 39,000 electricity accounts were without power in California, with another 20,000 in Nevada, according to PowerOutage.us.

On New Year’s Eve, a huge elm tree fell on Mary Spencer-Gode’s street as she was walking down it with other people.

She said the wind was going crazy. We turned off our tv so we could hear it, and I heard a big ‘Woah’, and the house moved.

“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.

The west coast states that have atmospheric rivers are responsible for a good majority of the rain during the colder season.

NPR has reported that a single river can carry more water than the Mississippi River at its mouth. Forecasters have long warned that the systems’ winds are very dangerous. In 2017, one of the storms toppled the legendary “Pioneer Cabin Tree” sequoia in Calaveras Big Trees State Park.

Forecasters have been raising alarms about the storm for days now, saying it could start to 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.

Wind gusts in central California had already reached hurricane force by Wednesday evening as the storm’s heaviest rain and strongest winds slammed into the Bay Area. In Nicasio Hills there was a peak wind gusts of 85 mph.

Because of its expected longer duration and prodigious amount of moisture, the incoming storm “should surpass the Saturday night storm by at least an inch and likely more in the upslope areas,” the NWS office in Oxnard and Los Angeles said, adding that the rain is expected to taper off Thursday night into Friday.

Fire scar areas and sensitive terrain are at risk of becoming the sites of dangerous mudslides if we don’t get a break from extreme weather, warned the state Water Resources Director.

Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services warned of the possibility of a catastrophic megaflood in California due to Wednesday night’s bomb cyclone

The storm became a bomb cyclone Wednesday, after it rapidly strengthened while still offshore. A bomb cyclone is an area of low pressure that intensifies by 24 millibars within 24 hours. The atmospheric pressure is measured by the usage of millbars.

As a consequence of the storm, roads could be flooded, hillsides collapsing, fallen trees would cause major power outage, and likely the loss of human life.

The storms bring in hazard, but they are needed more than ever to alleviate the severe dry spell, said a climate scientist in San Diego.

They can not only bring a lot of California’s water supply but they can also help the state out in the long run. When the duration gets too long, it becomes too strong, and the landscape can’t absorb the rain, which leads to flooding.

A study published in 2022, authored by Swain, found that climate change has doubled the chances of a disastrous megaflood in California in the next four decades.

“We have definitely seen some precipitation in the middle of what has otherwise been a period characterized by a very severe and persistent dry spell, but we have not seen the mega floods yet.”

“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.

Weather experts warned people in their coverage areas on Wednesday to prepare for potential power outages, and for travel to be threatened by high winds, debris and felled trees and power lines.

While there is a chance for rain over one inch per hour, it could cause flooding and mud slides in a region that has already been hit by deadly floods.

California Boulevard Cyclones: Powerful Winds and Public Safety in the Light of the 2018 Santa Barbara Mudslide Instability

The governor of California issued a statewide emergency declaration on Wednesday, allowing aid to be quickly distributed for those affected by the storm.

As the storm headed towards California, firefighters and rescue equipment were positioned near burn scar areas in seven counties, as well as five other counties with flooding concerns, 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.”

Officials in Monterey County also started setting up evacuation points and emergency shelters ahead of the storm’s arrival, according to the sheriff’s Facebook page.

The highway was closed in both directions for over an hour from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County, to south of Big sur in Monterey County.

San Francisco was under a flood warning Wednesday as the brunt of the storm started to hit the city, with Mayor London Breed saying “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

Oakland officials declare a local emergency after a high-rise storm and report of glass falling from a skyrmion high in Fox Plaza

And earlier in the day, there were reports of falling glass from a downtown high rise in Fox Plaza, though no injuries were reported. “It is unknown at this time if this is wind-related – highly possible though,” the San Francisco Fire Department said in a tweet.

Across the bay, Oakland city officials declared a local emergency Wednesday, bracing for storm damage on Oakland roads, flooding and potential threats to public safety.

A storm damaged equipment at Pacific Gas and Electric, causing widespread outages Wednesday evening.

The power system is being impacted by a number of trees falling into the lines. “We’ve mobilized for a major repair and restoration effort.”

Hundreds of crews are being staged around the region, including some from Southern California Edison who are also helping 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 warns that the weather was brought on by a potent Pineapple Express which brought low pressure waves from around the Hawaiian Islands to the Pacific Coast.

Loss of a California Redwood Tree by a Bay Area Storm: Firefighters and Public Works in San Francisco, Calif., Wednesday morning

The winds in San Francisco dropped a tree onto a car, trapping a family in a car next to the San Francisco Public Library’s main branch. Firefighters who used chainsaws to rescue the family reported that the occupants were OK.

“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.

A young child – about age 1 or 2 – was killed Wednesday after a redwood tree fell on a home in Sonoma County in Northern California, Occidental Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ron Lunardi said.

A 19-year-old woman died after driving on a partially flooded road in the early hour of Wednesday morning. The driver’s vehicle hydroplaned and hit a utility pole.

In many areas, emergency officials are urging 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.

Officials in California’s Santa Cruz County are seeing “significant damage” from the storm, adding that enormous waves and high tides have damaged piers along the coastline.

In Sausalito, rough conditions dislodged the city’s landmark bronze sea lion sculpture from its base; officials say it “is still attached by several bolts” and can be repaired.

Weather Warnings for California During the Super-Saturation El Nio and La Nia Counts on Tuesday and Thursday

“Meteorologists here sometimes talk about what they call the’storm parade,’ which is a series of atmospheric rivers back to back to back,” Stark said. “We’re looking at having another series of big storms this weekend, and into next week.”

After much of California was drenched with heavy rain and damaging winds Wednesday and Thursday that left roads flooded, downed trees and knocked out power to most of the state, daytime Friday will bring some relief before another storm strikes at night.

Mary Ellen Carol said that some in San Francisco saw mudslides as of Wednesday evening.

Weather alerts beyond some that expired Friday are expected to be issued this weekend for places due for a mix of rain and snow. It is forecast for millions.

The ground is so saturated from record rainfall earlier this week that a 40 mph wind can damage it.

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.

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 Niña, typically the Pacific Northwest sees wetter than normal conditions and Southern California sees drier than normal conditions,” Marybeth Arcodia, a postdoctoral researcher at Colorado State University said. The jet stream has a wavier pattern and is being pushed farther north.

During El Nios and La Nias, atmospheric rivers form and can be influenced by the larger patterns in the Pacific.

Why do we need to know the forecast patterns? A pedagogical comment on Tippett’s advice to CNN on forecast patterns and how to understand why we are different

Michael Tippett, a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, points out that the forecast patterns are not meant to be used on a day-to-day forecast scale but rather the entire season as a whole. This is why you need to research the patterns.

“There is an element of randomness that is not explained by the patterns,” Tippett told CNN. “This might help us understand why one year is different than the other.”