Flash flooding in northern California leads to soaked roads, water
rescues and 1 death
[December 23, 2025]
By NOAH BERGER and TRÂN NGUYỄN
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Heavy rain and flash flooding soaked roads in
northern California, leading to water rescues from vehicles and homes
and at least one confirmed death, authorities said Monday.
In Redding, a city at the northern end of California's Central Valley,
one motorist died after calling 911 while trapped in their vehicle as it
filled up with water, Mayor Mike Littau posted online Monday. Police
said they received numerous calls for drivers stranded in flooded areas.
“Redding police officer swam out into the water, broke the windows and
pulled victim to shore. CPR was done but the person did not live,”
Littau wrote.
The Redding area saw between 3 and 6 inches (7.6 centimeters and 15.2
centimeters) of rain from Saturday through Sunday night, the National
Weather Service said.
As scattered showers lingered into Monday, some local roads remained
flooded as street crews worked to clear debris and tow abandoned cars.
Dekoda Cruz waded in knee-deep muddy water to check on a friend’s
flooded tire business, where the office was littered with a jumble of
furniture and bobbing tires.
Redding's mayor warned of even more dangerous weather in the coming
days, and the city distributed free sand bags to residents in
preparation for the next storm.
The National Weather Service expects rain through the Christmas week as
a series of atmospheric rivers was forecast to make its way through
Northern California. A large swath of the Sacramento Valley and
surrounding areas were under a flood watch through Friday.
An atmospheric river is a long, narrow band of water vapor that forms
over an ocean and flows through the sky, transporting moisture from the
tropics to northern latitudes.
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A man rides in a pick-up truck bed while salvaging belongings from a
flooded storage unit following heavy rains on Monday, Dec. 22, 2025,
in Redding, Calif. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
The weather pattern was expected to intensify by midweek, which
could lead to potential mudslides, rockslides and flooding of creeks
and streams, forecasters warned. Up to 6 feet (1.83 meters) of snow
was predicted for parts of the Sierra Nevada and winds could reach
55 mph (90 kph) in high elevations by Wednesday.
Travel in the mountain passes on Christmas day would be “difficult
to near impossible,” the weather service said.
Southern California can also expect a soggy Christmas, with some
areas in Ventura County are forecast to get up to 11 inches (28
centimeters) of rain by Saturday. Parts of Los Angeles, including
areas with burn scars from the deadly Palisades fire, will be under
evacuation warnings beginning Tuesday.
The weather service urged people to make backup plans for holiday
travel.
Earlier this month, stubborn atmospheric rivers drenched Washington
state with nearly 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion liters) of rain in
a week, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said. That
rainfall was supercharged by warm weather and air, plus unusual
weather conditions tracing back as far as a tropical cyclone in
Indonesia.
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Associated Press writer Jessica Hill in Las Vegas contributed to
this report.
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