New York, Europe Brief News – California has been hit with a “atmospheric river” storm on Monday after a weekend of heavy rainfall and flooding forced thousands to evacuate, washed out roads and knocked out power.
Rains are expected to ramp up on Monday night, and “impact increasingly sensitive portions of central California that were hit hard by the rainfall on Friday and early Saturday”, according to the national weather prediction center.
Among areas hardest hit over the weekend were riverfront communities in central California where numerous streams engorged by runoff of rain and melting snow from surrounding mountains were transformed into raging torrents.
The entire area along the San Joaquin River became subject to an evacuation order on Saturday (March 18), after record rainfall and snow melt raised the river to hazardous levels, according to the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department.
Local John Gould rigged a rope system after his property was flooded. So he could pull himself home through the high waters. Gabe Singer reports.
The coming storm is the product of what meteorologists call an atmospheric river, a high-altitude current of dense, subtropical moisture streaming into the west coast from the warm Pacific waters around Hawaii. It is the 11th such weather system to hit California this season, adding to an exceptionally wet, snowy winter in a state that in recent years has been plagued far more by drought and wildfires than by severe precipitation.
The growing frequency and intensity of such storms amid bouts of prolonged drought are symptomatic of human-caused climate change, experts say. The swing from one extreme to another has increased the difficulty of managing California’s precious water supplies while minimizing flood and wildfire risks.
