The wave of damaging storms that have blasted California for a week could culminate with the most brutal tempest yet when the latest “firehose of moisture” sweeps across the state Monday.
The National Weather Service said “atmospheric river events” will continue to batter California through early this week with the most potent system arriving on Monday. Additional rain on saturated soils will lead to considerable flooding, mudslides and burn scar debris flows, the weather service said.
Widespread mountain snow and high winds will add to weather issues across the state, the statement warned.
“This could be a deadly situation and the storm will likely be a billion-dollar disaster,” tweeted AccuWeather meteorologist Ariella Scalese. “Several more inches of rain, mudslides/landslides. In addition, feet of snow above 6,500 feet and wind gusts exceeding 100 mph.”
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Latest developments:
►More than 440,000 homes and businesses across California were without power Sunday.
►The National Weather Service issued a flood watch for a swath of Northern and Central California.
►Gov. Gavin Newsom will provide a storm update at a news briefing Sunday afternoon.
POWER OUTAGES DRAG ON:California struggles to keep lights on after storms leave thousands in dark
How much rain and snow will fall?
State climatologist Michael Anderson said officials were closely monitoring Monday’s incoming storm and another behind it and were keeping an eye on three other systems farther out in the Pacific. Parts of Northern and Central California could see 6 to 12 inches of rain through Wednesday, the weather service said.
AccuWeather says an additional 4-8 inches of rain could fall on many of the coastal ranges, as well as the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Isolated areas could get up to 14 inches, AccuWeather said. Monday’s storm is expected to bring heavy Sierra snow, strong winds, and a mixture of heavy wet snow and low-elevation flooding concerns Monday and Tuesday, the weather service said.
San Francisco was forecast to see 2-4 more inches of rain. In the last two weeks, the downtown area has seen more than 11 inches of rainfall – six times more than normal for that time period. During this stretch, the city recorded its wettest 10-day period in more than 150 years.
Heavy rainfall will return to portions of Southern California Monday night and Tuesday, with 1-2 inches of rain in the Los Angeles area and locally higher amounts, AccuWeather said.
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Why could this storm be so damaging?
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The “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” that have hit the state over the last weeks have bloated rivers and saturated the ground. Mammoth Mountain, an Eastern Sierra ski resort, received nearly 10 feet of snow, the National Weather Service reported.
The fronts have been blamed for at least six deaths, authorities say.
The storms won’t be enough to officially end California’s ongoing drought but they have helped, Anderson said.
Contributing: The Associated Press
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