The US state of California is bracing for more rain and storms in the coming days as it continues to battle the effects of abnormal levels of precipitation, which ended a three-year drought.
It was an “atmospheric river” according to climatologist Daniel Swain of the National Center for Atmospheric Research, who told Lusa in writing that he was receiving “an overwhelming number of requests for assistance, advice and interviews” due to the storms.
The situation is unusual in a state more accustomed to fire and drought. Only the city of San Francisco has recorded the same amount of rainfall since Christmas Day that it normally would in half a year.
The forecast is for more rain and at least four storms in the next ten days.
Swain, who also works at the University of California Los Angeles, UCLA, published in August 2022 a scientific study on the increased risk of “megafloods” in California due to the climate crisis.
The scientist’s research, co-authored with Xingying Huang, shows that climate change increases the risk of more events “capable of causing catastrophic flooding,” such as the atmospheric river that is generating abnormal rainfall in California.
In the small town of Planada, a rural community in California’s Central Valley, authorities ordered the evacuation of all 4,000 residents after torrential rains and a dam burst that caused record flooding.
Evacuation orders in Planada were repeated in many other locations, including Monterey, Santa Barbara and Montecito, after California Governor Gavin Newsom asked the White House for a Presidential Declaration of Emergency, which President Joe Biden approved to unlock state aid.
At least 17 people died and thousands were evacuated in various parts of California due to flooding and mudslides, after this abnormal volume of snow and rain began to affect the northern region and spread to the south.
“We are in the midst of a deadly series of winter storms, and California is using all the resources at its disposal to protect lives and limit damage,” Governor Gavin Newsom said at a press conference.
Midweek, the National Weather Service reported an EF-1 tornado in the town of Milton, northeast of San Jose, which caused “extensive damage” by toppling and uprooting a significant number of trees.
“We are taking the threat of these storms seriously and want to make sure Californians remain vigilant as more storms approach,” Newsom said.
The 17 recorded deaths occurred in multiple counties, from San Bernardino in the south to Mendocino in the north, being caused primarily by falling trees and vehicles swept away by water with drivers trapped inside.
Several celebrities have been trapped by flooding and evacuation orders, such as Ellen DeGeneres in Montecito, a town where Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle also live.
Also the actor Kevin Costner did not attend the ceremony of the Golden Globes, this week, to accept the statuette assigned by “Yellowstone”, for being under confinement orders in Santa Barbara due to torrential rains.
According to the latest data from the US Drought Monitor, with information collected up to January 10, the “exceptional drought” that has plagued California for the past three years has all but disappeared in a few weeks.
The head of the California government’s Office of Emergency Services, Brian Ferguson, said that not since the 1990s had the state seen so much rain at one time.
Source: TSF
