California hurricane will finally dissipate after Monday: NPR

A house is submerged in flood water, after the Salinas River overflowed its banks on Friday.

Photos Justin Sullivan/Getty

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Photos Justin Sullivan/Getty

A house is submerged in flood water, after the Salinas River overflowed its banks on Friday.

Photos Justin Sullivan/Getty

In California, where some areas got three weeks of rainfall on par with the typical year’s rainfall, the final storm in a series of deadly storms is expected to leave the state on Monday.

Since late December, Californians have suffered from historic levels of rain and snow that have flooded rivers, flooded roads and homes, forced evacuations, and left millions without power.

“Rain will finally start to stop in California on Monday night, ushering in a period of what looks to be much drier weather after weeks of non-stop heavy rain,” the National Weather Service said. wrote in its forecast for Monday.

At least 19 people have died related to the storms. In San Luis Obispo County, Officials on Sunday are still looking for a 5-year-old boy Who washed away by floodwaters near San Miguel last week; Persistent rains pushed water levels in nearby waterways so high that it took rescuers days to search.

Pacific Gas & Electric, the state’s largest electricity supplier, said more than 2.6 million customers have lost power at some point since the storms began late last month. As of midday Monday, about 42,000 customers were without power, according to poweroutage.us.

“This is the most impactful storm series we’ve seen since 1995 when our blackout record began,” said Scott Strenfel, PG&E meteorologist. in the Sunday update from the utility company. “This looks to be the last storm in this long series and hopefully we’ll have clear skies after this one.”

Since December, a series of “atmospheric rivers” brought record-breaking hurricanes to California. The meteorological phenomenon that has swept moisture from the tropics to the higher latitudes of the West Coast, sending storm after storm into California.

According to the NWS, nearly the entire state has received 400% to 600% of typical average rainfall since Christmas.

At San Francisco International Airport, 20.3 inches of rain fell since the start of the “water year,” which runs from October 1 to September 30. That number has already surpassed the annual average of 19.64 inches, just over eight months away.

On Saturday, President Joe Biden approves state request for federal disaster declarationprovides federal funding to Merced, Sacramento, and Santa Cruz counties, the three counties hardest hit by the hurricanes.

Incessant rainfall has saturated the ground, leading to serious problems such as landslides, sinkholes and fallen trees damaging roads and homes.

More rain arrived overnight as the storm passed on Monday, dropping as much as 2 inches in some places along the Sierra Nevada Mountains and in Southern California’s Horizontal Mountains.

At least 16 California counties were given a flood warning or flood advisory as of Monday, most centered around the Bay Area and eastern areas, including Sacramento and the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

Floodwaters had receded enough on Thursday for rescue teams to continue their search for a 5-year-old boy who went missing last week near San Miguel, Calif.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP

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San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP

Floodwaters had receded enough on Thursday for rescue teams to continue their search for a 5-year-old boy who went missing last week near San Miguel, Calif.

San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office via AP

The higher elevations of the Sierra are expected to add 1 to 3 feet of snow, making it difficult to navigate the mountain roads. Officials closed US 50 just west of Lake Tahoe, citing the Heavy snow and avalanche controlwhile ice on Interstate 80 prompted officials to introduce a temporary speed limit of 30 mph.

Weather forecasters warned across California, waterways, drainage ditches and low-lying areas continued to be vulnerable to flooding Monday, including in San Joaquin County, where a rescue team was evacuated 175 residents from a flooded mobile home park on Sunday.

And much of the state’s coastline — from Point Reyes, 30 miles north of San Francisco, through the central coast to the beaches of Los Angeles — has coastal flood warnings in effect until Monday, with the weather service warning of waves 10 feet or more and dangerous offshore currents.

But by noon Monday, the NWS had begun canceling those warnings as the storm moved east.

A small, weak storm is expected to move quickly through the state late Wednesday.

“Then we’re looking for a dry period for much of the state, eventually, as we head into the weekend and pretty much last into the weekend,” David Lawrence saysan NWS meteorologist.