The West Coast Superstorm is Weak and Dense: Snow, Snow, and Wind from a Big Storm System to End the Year
On Friday, a big storm system will hit the West Coast with heavy rain, mountain snow and strong gusts of wind to end the year in the Northeast and Southwest.
Rainfall in parts of California exceeded 8 inches over the weekend as the last storm moved across the state. San Francisco had its second-wettest day of the year on December 31, with 5.46 inches of precipitation, less than half of its usual December rain.
There is a severe storm threat for parts of the South and central US. A slight threat for severe weather has been issued for parts of western and central Kansas and Oklahoma into northwestern Texas.
With the Mississippi River Valley area expected to get excessive rain, the storm could bring much needed relief to those in need.
On Monday, snow is expected to fall across the Rockies, northern Plains, and eventually into parts of the Midwest where winter storm alerts are posted.
The mountain range in the Sierra Nevada are under an alert of an increase in the number of slides. The high alert was issued due to the combination of high winds and heavy snowstorms, which make it very dangerous to walk down the mountain.
Multiple spin outs over the Donner Summit resulted in the partial closing of interstate 80 near the Nevada line at midday on Saturday.
Snowfall in Olympic Valley, Calif., had been received by the Reno National Weather Service from December 1st to Sunday Dec. 1
MarkDeutschendorf a forecaster at the National Weather Service office in Reno, said the snowfall was more than double what he would expect this time of year.
“It looks a lot like Christmas out here,” Deutschendorf said. “It didn’t come with a lot of wind, and it stuck to everything. It is similar to a picture postcard.
While he was impressed with the amount of snow that had fallen so far, he was still cautiously optimistic that this precipitation would be beneficial for the state.
The ski resort shared pictures on its website of thick snow 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 24 hours from Saturday morning to Sunday morning, we got 35 inches of snow, the sixth largest amount of snow that we have on record.
The Second Atmospheric River Storm in California and the Northern Subcontinent to Comes from Oregon on Sunday. PowerOutage.com
Meanwhile the storm, which also brought strong winds, knocked out power to more than 300,000 homes and businesses across California and Nevada as of early Sunday, according to Poweroutage. US.
A so-called atmospheric river storm pulled in a long and wide plume of moisture from the Pacific Ocean. Some roads in the state were closed due to flooding and rock slides.
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 hundreds of miles along the coast, offices from Los Angeles to Eureka, Calif. to Medford and Portland, Ore. sent out warnings to people to stay away from the coast as winds were expected to top 60 and 70 mph.
Trees that have been weakened by weather extremes could be knocked down by strong winds in Portland.
“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.
It was the secondwettest day in more than 170 years at San Francisco’s downtown NWS site.
Parts of the Northern California coast are at a slight risk of excessive rain on Friday, according to the Weather Prediction Center. It goes from the coast to the LA area on Saturday. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada are also under a level 2 threat of excessive rainfall Friday and Saturday.
“We anticipate this may be the most challenging and impactful series of storms to touch down in California in the last five years,” California Director of Emergency Services Nancy Ward said. “If the storm materializes as we anticipate. We could see widespread flooding, mudslides, and power outages in many communities.”
The National Weather Service in Los Angeles said to say goodbye to the warmth. Between today and tomorrow there is a big drop in temperatures. Expect 15-20 degrees of cooling when the storm system arrives.
The initial round of rain, wind and snow has moved inland and is set to hit inter- mountain areas on Wednesday. While coastal states may experience a brief lull on Wednesday, more rounds of rain and snow are predicted to sweep onshore at the end of the week.
parts of Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico are affected by the first wave. It will take a while for low elevation rain and high elevation snow to move out of California.
That means New Year’s Eve celebrations Saturday will likely be dampened in New York City and Washington, DC. It is expected to be a soggy new year in Los Angeles.
Sacramento Flood Watch for a Large-Scale Fallout Flash Flood Watch and Power Outages During a High-Area Snowstorm
A Flash Flood Watch was in place along and west of 5 Freeway to the Sacramento River, where there were worries about excessive rainfall and flooding on the Cosumnes and Mokelumne Rivers.
There will be a chance of rain through Saturday and the heavy rains are expected between 7 and 1 a.m. Sunday. Temperatures will be near 50 through most of the afternoon into Sunday.
The Weather Predicting Center said that the slight risk area highlights places that are already high in soil, burn scars and urban areas.
The section of I70 in Colorado that had been closed for nine hours reopened on Thursday morning 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.
A massive winter storm is lashing California’s coastal and inland areas with rain, snow and strong winds. The storm brought floods and more rain to the area on Thursday.
A Sacramento Municipal Utility District online map showed more than 153,000 customers were affected by power outages on Saturday. “SMUD crews are responding to outages across the region during this powerful winter storm,” the utility said in a Twitter message, adding that it was preparing additional resources while working to restore power.
The weather agency in Sacramento said that there were too many road shut downs at this point. Sacramento County urged residents in the unincorporated community of Wilton to evacuate, warning that flooded roadways could “cut off access to leave the area.”
The Second-Wettest Day on Record in San Francisco, California, and the Los Angeles County Department During the New Year’s Eve Outburst
The Second-wettest day on record in San Francisco was recorded on New Year’s Eve, and the National Weather Service said the precipitation was more than four inches (13.87 cm) deep. There were videos on Twitter showing the mud-colored water on San Francisco streets and the staircase in Oakland turning into a waterfall.
The California Highway Patrol said the section of U.S. 101 was closed due to flooding south of San Francisco. Videos on Twitter showed mud-colored water streaming along San Francisco streets, and a staircase in Oakland turned into a veritable waterfall by heavy rains.
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 police department posted pictures of a flooded underpass and a car that was stuck in the water.
The deluges have occurred as California has been enveloped by drought and faced fierce wildfires that have scarred the landscape. The state can not absorb more water without the possibility of more flooding.
According to the National Weather Service’s Eureka office, the earthquake caused roads in the county to start to flood. The bridge was temporarily closed due to earthquake damage and may be closed again if the river gets too high.
“Much like the end of 2022 storm, this will be a strong wind event along with moderate to heavy rainfall,” the National Weather Service in the San Francisco Bay Area said on Monday.
The weather service in Reno said strong winds could cause tree damage, and high waves on Lake Tahoe could capsize small vessels.
On the Sierra’s eastern front, flood watches and warnings were issued into the weekend north and south of Reno, Nevada, where minor to moderate flooding was forecast along some rivers and streams.
And as streets flooded and river water levels rose, the storm also forced residents of several small communities in northern California out of their homes on New Year’s Eve as evacuation orders and warnings were issued.
On top of urban flooding, several rivers began overflowing, including the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers and the Mormon Slough, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento. Flood warnings were issued for the southern Sacramento Valley and Sierra foothills.
Three communities were told to leave by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office due to creek flooding, and two others were ordered to leave by the San Lorenzo River.
NWS advised residents on Saturday to stay put amid reports of rock and mudslides in the foothills and road closures across the Sierra passes as flooding impacts continue to escalate.
The crews of the fire district responded to a wide range of emergencies on Saturday, including responding to fallen trees and water rescues for drivers whose vehicles became disabled after driving through standing water.
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.
Highway 50’s Flooding after the American River Reopened, and the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office notified by a tweet from the National Weather Service
The section of Highway 50 that was closed due to flooding from the American River reopened just after midnight.
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 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.
Snow accumulations of 1 to 2 feet were expected above 7,000 feet, and isolated accumulations of 5 feet were possible above 9,000 feet, the Weather Service said.
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. High winds, low visibility, and ice were cited as reasons for lift closings on Saturday.
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.
Several people were rescued from their cars after the flooding in San Bernardino and Orange counties. No major injuries were reported.
The region was drying out on New Year’s Day and there would be no rain in Pasadena for the Rose Parade.
Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office: Floods, Mud Slides, and Floods during the Fourth and Fourth Days of Super-Energy Showers
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.
One person was found dead in a submerged vehicle on Saturday in Sacramento County, and another man died when he was hit by a tree at a park in Santa Cruz.
The Point Pleasant areas of rural Sacramento County were put under an order to evacuate on Sunday.
“It is expected that the flooding from the Cosumnes River and the Mokelumne River is moving southwest toward I-5 and could reach these areas in the middle of the night,” the agency tweeted.
People who have been affected by floods and mudslides in Northern California will be warned in the new year that the situation may get worse before it improves.
The Russian River is at a particular risk of flooding, as it is the third atmospheric river to hit the region. The NWS also says the storm’s high winds could inflict severe damage in areas where the soil is already saturated with rainwater.
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.
Mary Spencer- Gode, a resident in the city of Sacremento, and other people came to the aid of the elm tree that collapsed on New Year’s Eve.
“The wind was just going crazy,” she told Capital Public Radio. “We turned our TV off so we could hear it, and I was sitting in the kitchen, I heard a big ‘woosh’ and kind of the house moved.”
An Atmospheric River Could Bring Rain in the California Central Valley During a La Nia-Reynolds Storm
“It’s just a small area of high temperature that gets transported away from the tropics to the higher latitudes before the cold front arrives,” NWS senior forecaster Bob Oravec recently told NPR.
Atmospheric rivers are more likely to occur in a La Niña climate pattern like the one we’re now seeing, with waters in the Pacific Ocean cooler than average. This is the third consecutive winter in which La Niña has prevailed, according to Climate.gov.
A single atmospheric river can carry more water than the Mississippi River, as NPR has reported. And forecasters have long warned that the systems’ winds are very dangerous. The Pioneer Cabin tree in Calaveras Big Trees State Park was knocked down by a storm five years ago.
The forecasters warn that the storm could cause land to be affected 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.
On Wednesday, the atmospheric river could bring 2 to 3 inches of rain in California’s Central Valley, with 3 to 6 inches in the foothills and mountains, the NWS office in Sacramento said. A strong jet stream will bring wind gusts of 50-75 mph in the valley and foothills and 60 mph in the mountains.
In Los Angeles and other areas, meteorologists warn that the storm isn’t over, even if people see patches of clear sky: “The morning will be the rainiest period,” reported forecaster Belen De Leon of NBC Los Angeles.
California’s Super-Wildlood During the Last Five-Year Wildfires: Implications for Future Climate Change and Land Use
There’s no longer enough ground cover to absorb and retain the water from the recent wildfires, posing a high risk of mudslides.
The NWS said that the system was undergoing bombogenesis off California’s northern coast and that many areas will be confronted with the effects.
According to the National Weather Service, the storm could trigger more widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, fallen trees, major power outages, “immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life.”
As wells run dry and reservoirs drain, Julie Kalansky, a climate scientist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, said these storms are desperately needed more than ever to alleviate the drought, despite the hazards they bring in some areas.
It can be beneficial if they bring so much of California’s water supply that they can also help out in the battle against a multi-year dry spell. “But when the duration becomes too long, they become too strong, they come back-to-back, and the landscape doesn’t get an opportunity to absorb all the rain, it can lead to this flooding.”
A study written by Swain found that climate change will increase the chances of a megaflood in California in the next four decades.
“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.
The new director of the governor’s office of emergency services said at a news conference that the storms may be the most challenging and impactful in the last five years.
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.
Rainfall rates over one inch per hour are possible, which could unleash flooding and mudslides on an already saturated region hit with a different storm that brought deadly floods just last weekend.
California Bomb Cyclone Flooding Powerful Winds: The Newsom-Newsom Emergency Declaration in Santa Barbara County, California
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.
As the storm moved towards California, firefighters and rescue equipment were positioned around burn scar areas, as well as five other counties with flooding concerns.
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.
Das Williams was the 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 section of Highway 1 from Ragged Point in San Luis Obispo County to south of Big Sur in Monterey County was closed due to rockslides.
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
Footfall from Fox Plaza in Oakland, California, caused by a possible “potent PINEAPPLE Express” on Wednesday evening: Unusual Outages and Storm-Induced Outages
There was a report of glass falling from a high rise in Fox Plaza, but no injuries were reported. San Francisco’s Fire Department said that it was unknown if it was wind-related at this time.
Oakland city officials have declared a local emergency due to storm damage on Oakland roads that could threaten public safety.
Pacific Gas and Electric, the largest utility in California, reported that the storm caused widespread outages on Wednesday evening.
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).
Hundreds of crews are staged around the region, including some from USC who are assisting in the response.
The storm may make it difficult for crews to access areas experiencing the most damage because the roads are predicted to saturate.
“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 intense weather was brought on by a “potent Pineapple Express,” the National Weather Service warned this week, using the term for an atmospheric river that brings moisture-rich low pressure waves from around the Hawaiian Islands to the Pacific Coast.
The Twin Falls and Fallen Trees: Emergency Management and Rescue in Sonoma County, Calif., after a 19-Year-Old Firefighter
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. The family were not hurt when firefighters used chainsaws to rescue them.
“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.
The bad weather is believed to have been a factor in at least two deaths. In Sonoma County, a tree fell on a home in the small town of Occidental Wednesday night, killing a child believed to be under 2 years old, according to local newspaper The Press Democrat.
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. As KQED reports, the driver’s vehicle hydroplaned and hit a utility pole.
In many areas, emergency officials are urging people to stay off the roads. There were a lot of broken trees and power lines in the roads after the floods and mud slides. Whiteout conditions have led to the closing of highways at higher altitudes.
Huge waves and high tides have caused damage to piers along the coastline of Santa Cruz County.
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.
The San Francisco Bay Area Weather Outlook for Storms ’13 and During the Super-Atmospheric Season,’ Deputy Chief Meteorologist Jay Stark
“Meteorologists here often talk about the “storm parade,” which refers to a series of atmospheric rivers back to back,” Stark said. “That’s really what’s happening right now: We’re looking at having another series of big storms this weekend, and even into next week.”
There was a lot of rain and strong winds across California over the course of a couple of days, and the daytime Friday will bring some relief as another storm moves in.
In nearby San Francisco, some saw localized flooding, mudslides and sinkholes as of Wednesday evening, said Mary Ellen Carol, executive director of the city’s emergency management department.
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: