After deadly flooding that caused widespread power outages and devastating mudslides two weeks ago, parts of California were hit by another wave of rain Monday in the latest storm to test the state.
Thunderstorms, gusty winds and lightning moved into the Bay Area on Monday afternoon, with forecasters predicting a “land spout” (a phenomenon caused by spouts of water reaching land) in southwestern San Mateo County. warned of the possibility of high to weak tornadoes. San Francisco.
Around the same time, a series of thunderstorms hit the northern Central Valley. Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said these storms can cause flooding and flash flooding. Forecasters warned of the possibility of quarter-sized hail and tornadoes.
Dr. Swain said he is concerned that similar storms could occur in the Sacramento area.
More rain is expected over the next few days, and millions of people across California are under flood watches through Wednesday.
The rain comes from rivers in the atmosphere, a type of storm where Pacific winds blow a narrow, intense band of moisture down the West Coast. These often produce the heaviest rain, snow, and flooding in California.
“It's just a huge band of moisture,” said Rich Thompson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Los Angeles.
Southern California felt the brunt of the storm early Monday. Ventura and Santa Barbara counties received 2 to 10 inches of rain, with the heaviest amounts in the foothills, the weather service said.of Santa Barbara airport The airfield was closed on Monday due to flooding.
Thompson said there were numerous reports of “flooded roads, rocks and debris crossing roads, and road closures” throughout the morning.
“This rain has nowhere to go because the soil is saturated from the last storm,” he said, adding, “This rain is far from over.”
By mid-morning Monday, only light rain had fallen as far south as Riverside, Orange and San Bernardino counties, but rain continued to fall in Los Angeles, forcing the California Highway Patrol to respond to vehicle crashes. A few hardy kitesurfers braved the weather on a beach in Ventura, northwest of Los Angeles.
A flash flood warning was in effect for the Santa Monica Mountains, Hollywood Hills and Beverly Hills until Monday night.
Further north, up to 2.5 inches of rain is expected to fall on the San Francisco Peninsula, including the city of San Francisco. Three to five inches of rain is expected in the Santa Cruz Mountains and three to six inches along the Big Sur coast.
Much of the Sacramento Valley was under a high wind advisory until Tuesday morning. A man camping near a stream in the El Dorado Hills east of Sacramento was rescued from the surging floodwaters early Monday morning, KCRA-TV reported.
Officials in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties issued evacuation warnings for certain vulnerable communities. Santa Barbara authorities discovered a woman's body in Mission Creek on Monday morning. Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale said it was too early to tell whether her death was related to the storm, but police said no foul play was suspected.
Mission Creek can turn into a raging river during heavy rains. During a storm two weeks ago, streams overflowed their banks, forcing the evacuation of some homes.
Mark Maslan and his wife, Anne Cumming, walked by a swollen stream during a light rain Monday afternoon in Santa Barbara. They have lived in town since 1990 and near the stream for about 20 years.
“It's great that the reservoirs are filling up and that's good for drought conditions, but the resilience of the infrastructure is questionable,” said Maslan, an English professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “This creek has flooded once, but it appears to be a regular threat.”
In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass urged residents to prepare over the weekend.
In the city's hillsides, homeowners and workers spent Sunday preparing sandbags and laying plastic tarps on muddy hillsides scarred by previous storms.
Some residents, including Stacey Broussard, 58, turned to fortifying their properties immediately after the storm ended. Broussard's home in Baldwin Hills Estates, a neighborhood overlooking South Los Angeles, was damaged when a former atmospheric river tore through the city.
The slope behind Broussard's home collapsed, part of the iron fence in his backyard fell, and mud and vegetation from his neighbor's house on the hill above was brought down the hill.
Broussard and his neighbors lined the hillside with tarpaulins to prevent further mud from sliding down.
“As you can see, we have tarps everywhere because unfortunately this is happening all over this neighborhood,” she said Sunday.
Vic Jolie Report from California, Sarah Marvosh and orlando mallorquin From New York. Patricia Mazzei Contributed to the report.
