'Brutal' storm hitting Northern California on Wednesday could be worse than New Year's Eve deluge - San Francisco Chronicle

Jan. 2, 2023Updated: Jan. 2, 2023 4:25 p.m.

Forecasters warned residents astir the Bay Area to beryllium ready.

“To enactment it simply, this volition apt beryllium 1 of the astir impactful systems connected a wide standard that this meteorologist has seen successful a agelong while,” according to a National Weather Service forecast. “The impacts volition see wide flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down (potentially afloat groves), wide powerfulness outages, contiguous disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, apt nonaccomplishment of quality life.

“This is genuinely a brutal strategy that we are looking astatine and needs to beryllium taken seriously.”

State officials and section officials were bracing for inches of rainfall connected apical of saturated soil.

“We’re going to bash the champion we tin to beryllium prepared,” said Brian Ferguson, a spokesperson for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. “But yet a batch of this is going to beryllium connected what Mother Nature does.”

After a airy rainfall Monday, residents should person a abbreviated interruption Tuesday to hole for the caller storm, which comes lone days aft the New Year’s Eve tempest caused a Central Valley levee to breach, flooded properties successful San Francisco and led to wide powerfulness outages and unsafe flooding connected roadways that near 2 radical dormant successful Sacramento County.

A weaponry cyclone was providing immoderate further excitement to the storm. the meteorological improvement sends aerial unit plummeting successful a abbreviated play of time, intensifying a spinning cyclone. That alleged bombogenesis created deadly conditions successful the Eastern U.S. conscionable earlier Christmas.

This time, however, the weaponry volition spell disconnected implicit the ocean, 500 to 800 miles offshore, but nevertheless fueling the beardown atmospheric stream and acold beforehand heading toward the Bay Area and different parts of Northern California.

The Bay Area could spot up to 3 inches, with up to six inches successful the coastal hills. A flood ticker was issued for the full Bay Area Wednesday and Thursday.

The heaviest rainfall is expected from precocious day Wednesday, starting successful the North Bay into sunrise Thursday, with a accelerated emergence of creeks, streams and rivers, Ryan Walbrun, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said.

“Unfortunately, the timing of the heaviest rainfall is during the dark,” helium said, with residents incapable to spot immoderate unsafe conditions.

While the full magnitude of rainfall volition beryllium importantly little than the New Year’s Eve storm, it could consciousness worse, said UCLA clime scientist, Daniel Swain.

“It doesn’t instrumentality a historically important tempest to person important impacts,” helium said, noting precocious saturation crossed the region. “It volition instrumentality little rainfall to origin much flooding this time.”

The atmospheric stream was rated a level 3 retired of 5, which was the aforesaid “strong” class connected to the New Year’s Eve storm, according to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography astatine UC San Diego.

But arsenic this 3rd atmospheric stream hits the state, rivers are approaching flood stage, including the Russian River adjacent Guernville, the National Weather Service

My main concern, close now, is information of this that volition autumn alternatively rapidly implicit 6-8 hr play connected Wed arsenic different beardown tempest makes landfall. There volition beryllium beauteous precocious imaginable for flooding, including immoderate serious/life-threatening flooding, crossed wide swath of NorCal. #CAwx https://t.co/5M0zYmYkbO

State exigency officials said they are preparing for the adjacent system, with much than 3.7 cardinal sandbags, 10,000 rolls of plastic, 400,000 tons of stone and different supplies pushed retired to power flooding successful the areas astir astatine risk.

“Having truthful overmuch h2o already successful the system, connected the ground, successful the levees, successful the streams increases the hazard with the adjacent circular of storms,” Ferguson of the OES said.

Of circumstantial concern, helium said, are wildfire pain areas which are prone to mudslides — and communities that person historically dealt with flooding, similar the Russian River Valley successful Sonoma County and the Santa Cruz Mountains.

In San Francisco, exigency officials said they were mounting up organisation sites crossed the metropolis Tuesday wherever residents could prime up sandbags to assistance support h2o retired of their homes oregon businesses, said Mary Ellen Carrol, enforcement manager of the Department of Emergency Management.

Parts of San Francisco were inundated with h2o connected Saturday and those areas could look akin challenges this week, she said.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was inactive restoring powerfulness to thousands of radical who were affected by the New Year’s Eve storm, with astir 29,000 customers without powerfulness Monday, including astir 4,400 successful the Bay Area.

The inferior said it was preparing for Wednesday’s tempest by clearing trees distant from powerfulness lines and staging electrical instrumentality crossed Northern California to reconstruct powerfulness much quickly.

Even arsenic residents prepared for the adjacent hit, they were inactive cleaning up from the New Year’s Eve storm.

Highway 99 adjacent Wilton reopened Monday aft a levee breach inundated the roadway and surrounding area. One motorist was recovered dormant successful their conveyance and different who was rescued aboriginal died. It was unclear whether repairs would clasp up amid the inches of rainfall expected aboriginal this week.

“It floods accelerated and it recedes slow,” said Matt Robinson, a spokesperson for the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services. “We’re conscionable trying to drawback our enactment earlier the adjacent tempest hits.”

The Point Pleasant country successful Sacramento County was inactive nether an evacuation bid owed to “imminent” flooding.

In the meantime, the caller bedewed upwind has created thing of a distorted position for drought-weary residents of the Golden State.

“During the drought years, we would termination for a tempest similar we’re getting (Monday),” Swain said, adding a fractional inch of rainfall would person been a godsend. “Now, you motion your shoulders.”

He noted that the authorities is inactive stuck successful a drought and La Niña conditions, known for her adust winters, are inactive sitting successful the Pacific Ocean.

“We request the water. We request the rain,” helium said. “You ne'er cognize erstwhile Mother Nature is going to crook off.”

Jill Tucker and Joaquin Palomino are San Francisco Chronicle unit writers. Email: jtucker@sfchronicle.com jpalomino@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @jilltucker joaquinpalomino