Early on Thursday, a strong winter storm moving over the state was delivering significant amounts of rain, wind, and snow.
On Thursday, more rain, wind, and snow were predicted for much of the state of California as a strong winter storm pushed eastward across the state, threatening to produce flash flooding and causing power grid problems.
As the storm, one of four that are anticipated to batter the West Coast this month, crept on shore from the Pacific Ocean, the weather grew worse over much of the state during the course of the night. Snow plough crews raced to clear new snow in the Sierra Nevada as torrential rain and strong winds swept around San Francisco.
Early on Thursday, the state was covered by flash flood watches, winter storm warnings, and high wind advisories for approximately six million people. High gusts and soggy ground conditions, according to forecasters, might cause trees to fall and cut off power.
According to the tracking website poweroutage.us, there were almost 200,000 consumers without energy in the state as of early Thursday, largely in northern regions. According to local television news footage, the storm’s winds were so strong that they toppled the canopy over a gas station in South San Francisco.
At least two deaths were attributed by the police to the storm on Wednesday. A 19-year-old lady was killed when the automobile she was driving hydroplaned and collided with a utility pole in Fairfield, California, northeast of San Francisco, according to the police. In Occidental, a small town in Sonoma County, redwood tree fell on mobile home, killing a 2-year-old, according to Josh Cerda, a firefighter engineer with the community’s volunteer fire department.
The National Weather Service predicted two to four inches of rain, with up to six inches possible in certain locations, for Northern California overnight in a warning on Wednesday. It also warned that Southern California’s coast may experience severe rains later on Thursday.
According to the advisory, this moisture increased the possibility of overnight rapid runoff throughout state’s coast and interior valleys, as well as in Sierra Nevada foothills and close to burn scars from wildfires.
A chain of atmospheric rivers, or routes of moisture from the tropical Pacific Ocean, includes the storm. On Saturday and again on Monday, additional bouts of heavy precipitation are anticipated to impact California.
The chance that atmospheric rivers will once again crash into California’s shore in rapid-fire succession is uncertain in light of climate change. Researchers are looking at the possibility that global warming is changing how the winds move moisture through the atmosphere.
Such storms can bring too much water too quickly to a state that has just been dried up by drought and charred by wildfires when they are exceptionally violent or move through swiftly.
On Wednesday Karla Nemeth, the director of California’s Department of Water Resources, told reporters that this was an extraordinary weather event and that we were transitioning from an extreme drought to an extreme flood. “That indicates that many of our trees are under stress. The ground is saturated after three years of severe drought, and there is a good probability that trees will fall that will cause serious issues.
Even while the state’s massive agricultural sector has seen some relief from the torrential rain and snow this month, California has nonetheless taken a beating. At least five people died in Oregon as a result of an atmospheric river that inundated the West Coast last week. This week’s linked storm, which caused significant flooding in the Bay Area and atleast four fatalities in California, struck earlier.
On Wednesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a state of emergency because to the impending poor weather, stating that he anticipated additional traffic closures, infrastructure problems, and forced evacuations in the days ahead.
A number of municipalities in California issued evacuation orders, including one in a region in San Benito County south of San Jose where it was anticipated that flooding would result from the fall of a hydropower dam. Many kids in the flood-prone San Mateo County were asked to leave for home early on Thursday, as officials in San Francisco attempted to obtain enough sandbags for locals.
