In California, a drought turned to floods. Forecasters didn’t see it coming – the Washington Post
Coming into this winter, California was mired in a three-year drought, with forecasts offering little hope of relief anytime soon. Fast forward to today, and the state is waterlogged with as much as 10 to 20 inches of rain and up to 200 inches of snow…The drought isn’t over, but parched farmland and declining reservoir levels have been supplanted by raging rivers and deadly flooding…
California bracing for one final round of storms as officials assess damage – the Los Angeles Times
Another moderate storm moved into California Sunday evening, bringing more rain to Los Angeles, the coast and inland valleys, and dropping potentially up to 2 feet of snow in the mountain regions of Northern California before it moves east on Monday…
Getting Inside California’s Wild Weather 8 Miles Over the Pacific – the New York Times
A Times reporter and photographer rode along with a team gathering data on the colossal atmospheric rivers that have drenched the state…
Newsom asks Californians to stay vigilant about more storms – ABC Eyewitness News
With rain-soaked California expected to see more stormy weather over the weekend and into next week, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and other state and federal officials pleaded with residents Friday to stay alert to possibly more flooding and damage…
California cleans up from one storm as it prepares for another – CNN
Days after California was hit by “the most impressive storm in nearly 20 years,” the state – fully saturated in many places – is gearing up this weekend for yet another series of atmospheric river events, with flooding, hail, powerful wind gusts and even funnel clouds possible in spots…
California braces for two more atmospheric rivers – Rueters
California’s parade of atmospheric rivers may be nearing an end but not before at least two more of the rainstorms are due to drench the waterlogged state starting on Saturday…
24 trillion gallons of water have drenched California, and storms aren’t over – the Washington Post
Since late December, California has seen it all. More than a foot of rain has come down in the lowlands, with eight feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada. For the state as a whole, the equivalent of about 24 trillion gallons of water has poured down from the sky — or an average of more than 8.5 inches of rain over every acre.
It’s not just water that has blasted the state. Winds nearing hurricane force have torn from the coast to the Central Valley and into the mountains, downing untold numbers of trees and cutting power to hundreds of thousands. A tornado danced south of Sacramento.
At least 18 people have died in the onslaught of storms, and it’s not over yet…
USGS Remote Sensing Data Tracks Coastal Erosion from California Storms – USGS
The USGS has collected and released topographic data that show the erosional effects of the January 2023 storms on the coast for the Santa Cruz region of California…Comparing the data with pre-storm conditions mapped in September 2022 provide “before” and “after” perspectives of the effects of the January storms. These data have been released under USGS Emergency Use Data authorities for data that have immediate or time-sensitive relevance to public health and safety…
Why California Is Being Deluged by Atmospheric Rivers – Scientific American
California has been hit by repeated storms fueled by torrents of moisture called atmospheric rivers that will only intensify in a warming climate
California is taking a beating from what the National Weather Service has called a “seemingly never ending parade” of strong storm systems, which started late last December and are still coming. Called atmospheric rivers, they are long, narrow currents of exceptionally wet air that shoot across the ocean, capable of dumping massive volumes of rain or snow on landfall. Although these storms deliver much of the West’s precipitation, they also cause most of the region’s flooding, with associated economic damages as high as $1 billion a year…