In a bulletin published Saturday, the National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of cyclones” barreling out of the Pacific toward California, which was expected to intensify the risk of flooding in some parts of the state this week. The first of five approaching atmospheric rivers — a stream of storms that will continue until about Jan. 19 — arrived this weekend. Heavy rain and mountain snow began late Friday night in Northern California and spread to Central California on Saturday, with some parts of the state expecting more than a foot of snow through early Sunday.
The deluge will continue, Michael Anderson, state climatologist for the Department of Water Resources, said in a briefing Saturday evening. “Monday and Tuesday is the second of five more storms and also the one that has our largest concerns right now,” Anderson said. The “warmer, wetter and stronger” storm arriving Monday was forecast to dump 2 to 4 inches of rain on the Sacramento Valley and 3 to 7 inches on foothill and mountain areas, Hand said.
Hand said this system would be “particularly concerning,” as soils remain saturated and rivers and creeks overflowing from this week’s rainfall. The weather service has issued a flood watch for much of the interior Northern California area starting midnight Saturday and continuing through Wednesday afternoon, she said. The Sierra will see heavy snowfall starting Saturday night, which, combined with strong southerly winds, could create “near-whiteout conditions” in the mountains, Hand said.
Another risk is that trees — dampened by rain and tenuously anchored in wet soil — could topple, knocking out power and even crushing people, King said, pointing to a fallen redwood in Occidental that killed a toddler Wednesday. A woman was killed by a falling tree Saturday in Sacramento, the Sacramento Fire Department reported. In Southern California, Saturday marked “really the last day of quiet weather for some time,” with clear skies and temperatures in the mid-60s, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
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With saturated soil, many of those beautiful homes perched on the California coast will start sliding or at least have cracked foundations or slabs.
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