Storm-weary California lashed with 12th 'atmospheric river' cloudbursts
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[March 22, 2023]
By Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -The latest burst of heavy, wind-blown rain and
snow churned out of the Pacific into California on Tuesday, triggering
scattered floods and mudslides, uprooting trees and leaving thousands of
storm-weary residents under evacuation orders.
The newest onslaught, arriving early on the second official day of
spring, was concentrated mostly in Southern California, the state's
central coast and its agricultural heartland, still sodden from a
relentless string of storms that began in late December.
High-wind warnings and advisories were posted for a vast area stretching
from the Mexico border through Los Angeles to the San Francisco Bay
area. Winter storm warnings were in effect for high mountains, with
several feet of snowfall forecast.
The National Weather Service (NWS) also issued flood watches across a
region of more than 17 million people, including most of greater Los
Angeles and a large swath of western and central Arizona.
Gusty, gale-force conditions posed a bigger hazard around Santa Cruz and
the Bay area, with sustained winds of 60 to 70 miles per hour (97 to 113
kilometers per hour) toppling trees and power lines, according to Frank
Pereira of the NWS Weather Prediction Center.
There was at least one wind-related fatality: a person killed in a
vehicle by a fallen tree in Sonoma County, north of San Francisco,
Pereira said.
More than 14,000 people statewide were under orders to seek higher
ground because of flooding, with evacuation warnings issued for another
47,000 residents, said Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the
California Office of Emergency Services.
The bulk of evacuation orders, covering some 12,000 people, were in
Tulare County, a flood-stricken region in the San Joaquin Valley where
high water from recent levee breaches has inundated a number of
communities, Crofts-Pelayo said.
Otherwise, flooding on Tuesday was scattered mostly to the south. They
included the rescue of a motorist whose vehicle was swept away in a
flooded stream and an SUV pulled from a mudslide in San Diego County,
Pereira said.
Nearly 250,000 homes and businesses were without electricity statewide,
according to utility tracking service PowerOutage.us.
Emergency teams throughout the state patrolled rain-swollen streams,
repaired damaged levees and cleared debris from storm drains and
culverts to minimize flooding of populated areas.
Crews were in San Luis Obispo County were on alert for Lopez Reservoir
to reach full capacity for the first time in 25 years and spill over
into an adjacent creek that runs to the seaside town of Oceano, bounded
by a weakened levee, said Rachel Monte Dion, a county emergency services
coordinator.
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Floodwaters from the Tule River inundate
the area after days of heavy rain in Corcoran, California, U.S.,
March 21, 2023. REUTERS/David Swanson
If the levee is overtopped to the north, instead of the south as
designed, it could flood the homes of about 1,500 Oceano residents,
she said.
PARADE OF STORMS
The mix of high winds, heavy showers and snow was expected to spread
across the Southwestern U.S. into the central Great Basin and
Rockies by late on Tuesday and persist through Wednesday night, the
NWS said.
The storm marked the 12th so-called atmospheric river since December
to sweep the U.S. West Coast, formed from an immense airborne
current of dense water vapor carried aloft from the ocean and
flowing overland in bouts of heavy rain and snow.
A Pacific cyclone swirling around an intense low-pressure system off
San Francisco was driving the latest system, drawing up vast
quantities of moisture and channeling it to the coast.
Unlike earlier atmospheric rivers this season, the latest packed a
cooler load of moisture, meaning more snow falling in the coastal
mountains and Sierra Nevada range.
As much as 3 to 4 feet (1-1.2 meters) were forecast at elevations
above 6,000 feet, where some areas remain blanketed in snow left
last month.
Up to 3 inches (7.6 centimeters) of rain were expected in coastal
regions and valleys of Southern California, and as much as 6 inches
in lower mountains and foothills, the NWS said.
The rapid succession of Pacific storms during the past three months
has come as an abrupt reversal of fortunes for a state preoccupied
for the past few years by drought and wildfires - a swing in weather
extremes that experts say is symptomatic of human-induced climate
change.
California's harsh winter has caused widespread property damage and
upheaval for thousands of residents, with more than 20 deaths
attributed to the storms.
But the glut of precipitation has also replenished sorely depleted
reservoirs and the state's mountain snowpack, both providing a
critical source for drinking supplies, irrigation, and sustenance
for fish and wildlife.
(Reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Gerry Doyle
and David Gregorio)
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