Over the past two weeks, much of Northern California has received a foot of rain and many feet of snow have fallen in the Cascades and Sierra Nevada. Coastal and river flooding as well as mudslides in burn scar areas have plagued the region.
Unfortunately, another Pacific storm, centered off British Columbia, is directing its plume of tropical moisture into the same area and two other storms (one over the western Aleutian Chain and the second east of Japan) are lined up to produce the same "atmospheric river" during the next week. Whether the persistent onslaught of rain and snow will end with those storms remains uncertain.
While they are providing relief from the prolonged Western drought, these potent storms will deliver too much moisture over too short a period of time. Widespread flooding will likely worsen and is expected to spread into southern portions of the State as well. Relatively warm water in the Northern Pacific, a product of global warming, is surely responsible for the relentless precipitation.
