Over the weekend and into Monday, a monster storm in Northern California and Nevada caused mudslides, flooding, power outages and brought down the famous Sequoia “Tunnel Tree.” NPR.Org is reporting that in the Russian River valley, rivers overflowed their banks, flooding vineyards and forcing thousands of residents out of their homes.
That storm is over, and as the Associated Press is saying, according to NPR.Org, everyone will get a “one-day respite from the rains” to assess the damages and rescue people stranded by the flooding before the weather deteriorates and the next storm comes onshore.
Capital Public Radio in Sacramento reported that some areas of the Sierras received more than a foot of snow during the three-day storm that ended on Monday. A long stretch of Interstate 80 was closed after a 60-foot mudslide. Because the weekend was relatively warm, the melting snow added to the flood waters.
New storm will last through Wednesday
The new storm system will bring a band of heavy rainfall to northern California and heavy snowfall to the Sierras into Wednesday, adding to the flooding already going on. This storm is part of a system called the “Pineapple Express” that has already soaked a huge area from Hawaii to California and Nevada.
Jim Matthews, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Sacramento says that this storm will be colder, and “snow levels will be much lower, down to around 4- to 5,000 feet. And there will be several feet of snow falling over the Sierra from the storm on Tuesday-Wednesday.”
Winds are forecast to be more than 25 miles an hour, with gusts up to 50 miles an hour in the Sacramento Valley. In a post on the NWS Facebook page today, a ‘blizzard warning’ is in effect in the Sierras. KTLA.com is reporting the NWS is forecasting strong winds and very heavy snowfall that will cause whiteout conditions across the Sierra, including Interstate 80, and Highways 50, 88, 4 and 108. As of this writing, CalTrans has closed a significant stretch of Interstate 80 over the Sierra.
Storms impact on the drought
Officially, California remains in a state of drought, especially after going through five years of little rain or snow. The state is unique in that it is dependent on rainfall and snow pack in the Sierra Nevadas in the winter. Because of the extended drought, it will take a few more years of plentiful rain and snow before it will be safe to say the drought is over.
The heavy rains have helped, though. For example, Lake Oroville, the principal reservoir for the State Water Project, has 2.25 million acre-feet of water now. That’s more than double what it had last year, reports Reuters.
One good thing about today’s storm is that it will be colder. This means that the five to 10 feet of snow expected in the high Sierras above 7,000 feet will stick around, adding to the snowpack. The forecast also calls for 150 mph winds on ridgetops.
But keep in mind that flooding is a big concern right now. Officials have had to open floodgates on some reservoirs as a means of flood control. And for the first time in 11 years, the floodgates on the Sacramento River were opened on Monday, forcing a wall of water into the Yolo Bypass, one of a number of areas designed to catch floodwater.
