Yet another storm swept through California on Friday, prompting flooding and evacuation orders. Several regions affected by these new bad weather have already been victims in recent weeks of a particularly rainy winter.
Up to 23 centimeters of precipitation are expected in places. This rain, coming from a rather warm depression, is likely to melt part of the exceptional snowpack accumulated over the past three months.
Rain on “soil saturated” with water from this winter’s storms and on “the thick snowpack will cause significant flooding”, warned the US Weather Service (NWS). At higher altitudes, snowfall over the mountains of northern California is expected to “cause traffic difficulties”.
US President Joe Biden on Friday approved a declaration of a state of emergency in California, to facilitate aid from the federal state. California is deploying every tool at its disposal to protect communities from the relentless and deadly storms battering our state,” Governor Gavin Newsom said, calling for the emergency assistance.
An “atmospheric river”
Numerous evacuation orders have been issued, particularly in northern California, where seven rivers could experience major floods.
California, the most populous state in the country, has a particularly rainy winter. In January in particular, a series of consecutive storms caused multiple floods, landslides and falling trees, leading to the death of 20 people.
The current storm is fed, like most others this winter, by an “atmospheric river”, a gigantic corridor of rain that carries water vapor stored in the tropics, often around Hawaii, which brings them the nickname of “Pineapple Express”.
In eastern California, the Sierra Nevada mountain range has been blanketed in much thicker-than-normal snowpack for weeks. Faced with new snowfall on Friday, several ski resorts in the region closed their doors.
Further south, in the San Bernardino Mountains near Los Angeles, some villages are just beginning to become accessible again, after being cut off from the world for several days, even weeks for some hamlets.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp