California flooding: More storms forecast for weekend as experts warn heavy rain won’t fix drought
Death toll likely to rise in California as deluge and flash floods set to continue
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California is bracing for more extreme weather this weekend, when two more storms barrel into the state on Friday and over the weekend.
The National Weather Service is forecasting heavy rain and flooding in the northern parts of the state on Saturday and into early Sunday morning, urging residents late on Thursday to “stay weather aware and prepare now”.
Since the start of the year, California has been hammered by a succession of storms with northwestern and central California already soaked by between 10 and 20 inches in the last two weeks alone.
While the heavy rain has started to raise reservoir levels, experts say it will take far more to reverse the effects of years of drought.
At least 18 people have now died in incidents linked to the extreme weather with the body of a 43-year-old woman discovered in a submerged vehicle in Sonoma County on Wednesday.
Near the city of Paso Robles, five-year-old Kyle Doan, swept away in the floodwaters when he and his mother Lindsey Doan got stuck in their car, is still missing.
Kyle’s father said that his wife unbuckled their son and the pair climbed out of the sinking car when it got stuck.
“He was calm. He was trying to say, ‘Stay calm, Mom,” he said. “She was doing her best.”
Parents describe horror of losing missing 5-year-old child Kyle Doan in California floods: ‘Hug your kids extra hard’
Residents of remote California canyon airlifted to safety after getting stranded by storms
Will epic California storms be enough to end state’s drought?
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Will epic California storms be enough to end state’s drought?
The wave of storms which have hit California since late December has meant the state has received 400-600 per cent of normal rainfall, according to the National Weather Service.
By early January, state scientists at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada mountains were also recording snow 177 per cent higher than average.
But will the atmospheric river end California’s historic drought, the worst in state history?
Read more from Josh Marcus’s report at the link below.
Will epic California storms be enough to end state’s drought?
It will take more than a few storms to rescue California from its historic drought
California transport officials warns people against taking to the roads
California transport officials were warning people against taking to the roads with more severe weather on the way.
Districts were “strongly advising” the public to avoid travel this week if possible, reported the California Department of Transportation, known as “Caltrans”.
“These storm systems have affected the majority of CA in some shape or form,” the department tweeted, and advised drivers to consult state travel alerts before heading out.
Tens of thousands remain without power
Tens of thousands of customers remain without power across California as severe storms continued to batter the state.
Some 57,835 homes and businesses were in blackout on Wednesday morning, according to utility tracker poweroutage.us
The most outages are located in Mendocino county, north of San Francisco, along with Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties which includes the city of San Jose and Silicon Valley.
Newsom links ‘weather whiplash’ to climate crisis
Governor Gavin Newsom hinted at a link between California’s extreme weather and the climate crisis during a visit to Santa Cruz county on Tuesday.
The area has been one of the most heavily impacted from the atmospheric river deluging the state.
“The dries are getting a lot drier the last three years, and the wets are getting a lot wetter. This weather whiplash — is that the new reality?” he said, according to NBC News.
California has been in a state of “megadrought” for the past two decades, intensified by the impacts of global heating. The climate crisis is responsible for about 42 per cent of the soil moisture deficit since 2000, according to a UCLA research paper last year. It also noted that it could take several years of high precipitation to overcome the mega-drought.
“It’s extremely unlikely that this drought can be ended in one wet year,” UCLA geographer Park Williams said last year.
Atmospheric rivers can also be intensified by the climate crisis, scientists have warned. As the atmosphere heats up, it becomes capable of holding more water and leads to more intense deluges.
Snow for days
Mammoth Mountain ski area was closed on Tuesday because it received too much snowfall, according to reports.
“An incredible 420cm [165 inches] has fallen since Christmas with over 4ft or 120cm in just in the last day alone,” Global News Canada’s Chief Meteorologist Anthony Farnell tweeted. He shared an image of a ski-lift at the resort under a heavy white blanket of fresh powder.
The resort’s official site reported that the mountain will have a staggered reopening on Wednesday. “Expect delays in all lift openings due to extensive avalanche mitigation work,” an alert stated.
Spike in lightning strikes
The parade of atmospheric rivers has caused an abnormal number of lightning strikes in California in recent weeks.
The state typically has one of the lowest annual tallies of lightning strikes in the nation.
National Weather Service meteorologist Robert Baruffaldi told The New York Times that this was because of the lack of humidity in California that means “it’s harder to get the persistent strikes that other parts of the nation see”.
On Tuesday, the storm system parked over the San Francisco Bay area led to five to ten lightning strikes every five minutes, the local CBS channel reported.
Southern California surveys its damage as north braces for more downpours
Southern California was taking stock of the damage from heavy rainfall and high winds on Wednesday even as a new atmospheric river made its way onshore.
Today’s downpours were expected to only impact northern areas of the state, giving the south a break - at least until the weekend, the National Weather Service reported.
Watch: Trapped driver rescued from floodwater in California desert city of Palm Springs
Mammoth Mountain continues to dig out from storm
The famed California ski resort in the Sierra Nevada says it got up to 7.5ft of snow in the recent storms, with more expected later this week.
“WHAT.A.STORM. We thought this photo was fitting for the final Dump Alert of this Mammoth mega-storm which dropped 6 to 7.5 FEET of snow in the last few days,” the resort’s Instagram account stated.
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