Another powerful Pacific storm will sweep into California later Monday after an earlier system unleashed flooding on major roadways and dumped heavy rain and snow that breached levees.
(Bloomberg) — Another powerful Pacific storm will sweep into California later Monday after an earlier system unleashed flooding on major roadways and dumped heavy rain and snow that breached levees.
A further 2 to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain will fall across large portions of California, accompanied by heavy winds that will likely add power outages to the state’s woes, said Marc Chenard, a senior branch forecaster at the US Weather Prediction Center. At its highest peaks, California will also get another round of heavy snow.
“It looks like another multiple-hazard event,” Chenard said. “The main system comes ashore later today and tomorrow. We should start seeing the impacts later today in Northern California.”
The storm has caused widespread flooding that prompted officials to order the evacuation of residents along the Salinas River in Monterey County Sunday. Deluges forced the closure of the iconic coastal Highway 1 and roads in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The order comes after a levee breach inundated the farm town of Pajaro, forcing the evacuation of more than 1,000 residents in the agricultural region and leading the county to issue an unsafe drinking water alert for the area, as wells may be contaminated with floodwaters. California Governor Gavin Newsom on Sunday extended the state of emergency to six more counties, taking the total to 40.
By late Sunday local time, portions of Interstate 880 in Fremont had reopened after flooding. Earlier, the Capitol Corridor rail service was rerouting trains around Fremont and Hayward due to a washout. In San Mateo County, damage from a landslide blocked a stretch of Highway 84, which connects Silicon Valley to the coast. Roads in South Lake Tahoe were impassable from flooding.
Photos and video posted to social media Sunday showed widespread flooding in Pajaro, in a region known for its strawberry crop. Strawberries were Monterey County’s most valuable crop in 2021, bringing in $968 million of $4.1 billion in total agricultural revenues, according to the county agricultural commissioner.
The storms hitting California are known as atmospheric rivers and can send vast amount of moisture out of the ocean crashing onto land. After this week’s system unfurls itself across the most populous US state, there should be a lull for a few days.
Chenard said there aren’t any other atmospheric rivers forecast to arrive in the next week, but rain could continue for several days in many areas.
–With assistance from Brian Wingfield.
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