As high-impact heavy precipitation continues across much of California, the endless stream of atmospheric river events is set to refocus across the northern part of the state, the National Weather Service informs.
As of Tuesday, the massive flooding in California left more than 200,000 homes and businesses without power and has killed at least 17 people with Gov. Gavin Newsom confirming the death toll from the barrage of severe storm systems during his visit to the town of Capitola on the Santa Cruz coast.
Meanwhile, authorities have resumed the search for the 5-year-old boy that was swept away on Monday in floodwaters near Paso Robles in central coastal California.
The severe thunderstorms that have been sweeping from north-central California to the Los Angeles Basin are bringing strong winds and hail and have prompted rare tornado warnings.
In a forecast discussion on Monday, the National Weather Service noted that, in the past several weeks, nearly all of California has received rainfall totals 400% to 600% above average.
Per the NWS, as much as 11 inches of rain have fallen in Los Angeles County, and more than 18 inches in the mountains of Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, which has centered the flood threat on Tuesday more in Southern California.
With an additional 2 to 5 inches of rain predicted for Tuesday, the fears increased of worsened flooding and mudslides that have already forced thousands of Californians to evacuate.
For the record, the storms that have caused flooding, power outages, and landslides to threaten Californians in the near-term, are, on the other hand, boosting levels of the reservoir severely depleted by the Southwest’s megadrought.
Experts also note that the extreme change from a bone-dry to a flood-prone state is a clear example of how climate change caused by people is accentuating California’s naturally capricious precipitation patterns.
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