California flooding – live: More storms forecast for weekend as experts warn heavy rain won’t fix drought - The Independent

How overmuch rainfall and snowfall has fallen?

California was successful a lull betwixt storms connected Thursday, but much precipitation was expected to get connected Friday and proceed done the weekend. Flooding remained a concern, particularly on the Salinas River successful Monterey County, due to the fact that truthful overmuch rainfall has fallen.

Downtown San Francisco, for example, received astir 13.6 inches (34.5 centimetres) of rainfall from Dec. 26 to Jan. 10. Snowfall truthful acold this play astatine the acme of the Mammoth Mountain edifice successful the Eastern Sierra deed 444 inches (11.3 metres).

In the Sierra Nevada and different mountains, the h2o contented of the snowpack is much than 200 per cent of mean to day and much than 100 per cent of the 1 April average, erstwhile it is historically astatine its peak, according to the authorities Department of Water Resources.

“The automated sensors are registering what they would see a afloat seasonal snowpack, astir what we would expect connected April 1,” authorities climatologist Michael Anderson told reporters this week.

The snowpack supplies astir a 3rd of California’s h2o erstwhile it melts and runs disconnected into rivers and reservoirs.

Locally, immoderate reservoirs person seen important rises successful h2o levels but determination are inactive important deficits to overcome.

Statewide, reservoir retention is lone 82 per cent of mean for this clip of year. The largest reservoir, Shasta, is astatine conscionable 44 per cent of capacity. That’s lone 70 per cent of the mean to date. The immense Oroville reservoir is person to its mean but astatine conscionable 49 per cent of capacity.

And there’s interest that the rains could abruptly stop. The extremity of 2021 was marked by important storms, but the commencement of 2022 saw months of bone-dry weather.

There are immoderate hints of a drier signifier processing astir 20 January, said Daniel Swain, a clime idiosyncratic astatine the University of California, Los Angeles, during an online briefing this week.

AP

Rachel Sharp13 January 2023 13:45

Voices: I’ve already had galore terrifying adjacent misses successful the California storms - not everyone is arsenic lucky

Based successful San Francisco, The Independent’s Josh Marcus and his household person had 3 near-misses since the deluge began successful California. He writes that not everyone is arsenic fortunate arsenic they person been.

Rachel Sharp13 January 2023 13:15

California braces for much storms implicit weekend

California is bracing for much utmost upwind this weekend, erstwhile 2 much storms tube into the authorities connected Friday and implicit the weekend.

The National Weather Service is forecasting dense rainfall and flooding successful the bluish parts of the authorities connected Saturday and into aboriginal Sunday morning, urging residents precocious connected Thursday to “stay upwind alert and hole now”.

“A Flood Watch has been issued for portions of #NorCal for Saturday - aboriginal Sunday. Heavy rainfall Saturday could pb to municipality flooding & rises connected country rivers, creeks, & streams. Never thrust crossed flooded roads! Stay upwind alert & hole now,” the bureau tweeted.

Since the commencement of the year, California has been hammered by a succession of storms with northwestern and cardinal California already soaked by betwixt 10 and 20 inches successful the past 2 weeks alone.

Rachel Sharp13 January 2023 12:44

Watch: What interaction volition California’s floods person connected historical drought conditions

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 12:15

Racing to wide debris earlier adjacent set of storms

In San Francisco, a histrion fell connected a commuter autobus connected Tuesday without causing injuries and lightning struck the city’s iconic Transamerica Pyramid gathering without damage. In South San Francisco, precocious winds besides ripped distant portion of the extortion connected a ample flat building.

Crews wielding chainsaws were moving astir the timepiece to wide each the downed trees crossed the Bay Area. Arborist Remy Hummer said helium expected galore much trees to autumn arsenic rains returned.

“The ungraded is fundamentally similar a sponge, and astatine immoderate constituent helium can’t clasp immoderate much h2o and trees go fundamentally astir buoyant successful the ungraded and precise loose. And past you get the combinations of precocious winds and that’s erstwhile you get histrion failures, meaning afloat trees uprooting and falling over,” helium said.

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 11:30

Montecito residents allowed to return: ‘I can’t ideate surviving anyplace else'

Crews worked to reopen large highways that were closed by rockslides, swamped by flooding oregon smothered with mud portion much than 10,000 radical who were ordered retired of seaside towns connected the cardinal seashore were allowed to instrumentality home.

That included Montecito, a affluent Santa Barbara County assemblage that is location to Prince Harry and different celebrities wherever 23 radical died and much than 100 homes were destroyed successful a mudslide 5 years ago.

This week’s tempest brought backmost harrowing memories for Montecito nonmigratory Susanne Tobey, who was rescued erstwhile the 2018 mudslide roared done her community.

Like 5 years ago, erstwhile the assemblage was asked to evacuate connected Monday, the lone road retired was closed, she said. “It was terrifying,” she said of the latest storm. “I don’t deliberation I slept the full nighttime and the rainfall was ... you conscionable can’t imagine. It’s similar conscionable surviving successful a waterfall.” But adjacent with yet different tempest connected its way, Tobey said she plans to enactment enactment again.

She said the assemblage has made improvements that she hopes volition forestall a akin tragedy, including adding alloy nets to drawback falling boulders, and debris basins to drawback the deluge earlier it overtakes the hillsides that plunge into the Pacific Ocean.

“You person to beryllium brave to unrecorded successful California,” she said, adding: “I can’t ideate surviving anyplace else.”

AP

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 10:30

Cost of storms estimated to transcend $1bn

More than fractional of California’s 58 counties were declared catastrophe areas and repairing the harm whitethorn outgo much than $1bn, Brian Ferguson, spokesperson for the authorities Office of Emergency Services told the Associated Press.

His estimation was mirrored by that of a clime adept with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The full is simply a reflection of “physical harm to homes, businesses, and municipal properties,” said Adam Smith, an applied climatologist and catastrophe adept with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Smith is the pb researcher for NOAA’s “US Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters” report, which catalogs 18 specified disasters from 2022. He has crushed to judge that the atmospheric river-producing storms successful California whitethorn articulation this year’s list.

“Clearly, erstwhile everything is said and done aft weeks of atmospheric rivers,” Smith said, helium “would not beryllium amazed if this was the archetypal billion-dollar lawsuit of 2023.”

Other large costs could see mislaid productivity for individuals and businesses owed to evacuation, cultivation harm from flooding and harm to boats and piers on the coast, Smith said.

An often-overlooked outgo associated with disasters is harm to nationalist infrastructure, helium noted. Damage to roads, bridges, levees and electrical systems would beryllium totted up by NOAA but disregarded by the nationalist arsenic they measure their idiosyncratic losses, helium said.

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 09:30

What adjacent for California? Storms 8 and nine...

The plume of moisture lurking disconnected the bluish seashore of California stretched each the mode implicit the Pacific to Hawaii, making the atmospheric stream “a existent Pineapple Express,” the National Weather Service said.

Michael Anderson, climatologist with the Department of Water Resources, said California has been deed by 7 storms since the extremity of December and 2 much somewhat weaker ones were expected earlier the authorities gets a reprieve by the extremity of adjacent week.

“The situation is they’re storms 8 and 9 successful the series and the cumulative effect is apt to origin impacts larger than the storms themselves mightiness cause,” Anderson said.

AP

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 08:30

Drenching California storms enactment dent successful drought

Atmospheric rivers pounding California since precocious past twelvemonth person coated mountains with a afloat winter’s worthy of snowfall and begun raising reservoir levels — but experts accidental it volition instrumentality overmuch much precipitation to reverse the effects of years of drought.

The US Drought Monitor’s play update released connected Thursday showed that “extreme” drought has been virtually eliminated a week aft the worst class — “exceptional” — was washed disconnected the map. Two weeks agone utmost drought covered 35% of California.

Read on:

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 07:00

ICYMI: NWS confirms tornado struck aboriginal Tuesday successful bluish San Joaquin Valley

The National Weather Service successful Sacramento confirmed connected Wednesday that demolition successful Calaveras County aboriginal connected Tuesday greeting was caused by a tiny tornado.

An EF1 tornado occurred astatine astir 4.10am section time, touching down adjacent a tiny reservoir. Though classified arsenic “weak” inactive produced 90mph winds and caused “extensive histrion harm to achromatic oak and pines trees”, according to a property merchandise from NWS.

The tornado is conscionable 1 tiny portion of the terrible upwind that has lashed California for overmuch of this month.

On the aforesaid greeting arsenic the tornado struck, terrible thunderstorms swept done the San Joaquin Valley with winds beardown capable to prime up a ample equine barn adjacent Oakdale successful Stanislaus County and resistance it implicit a five-foot fence. Neighbouring properties had insignificant extortion harm and upwind speeds are thought to person peaked astatine 75mph.

The NWS says that a informing was sent retired to residents with a 17-minute pb clip advising that straight-line winds and tornadoes were imaginable from the terrible thunderstorms successful the area.

Oliver O'Connell13 January 2023 05:20