Thread: Drought-plagued California copes with near-record rainfall

Drought-plagued California copes with near-record rainfall

Updated 6m ago
By William M. Welch and Doyle Rice, USA TODAY

LOS ANGELES — Storm-battered California braced for more intense rain and snow today after a wet week that has triggered flash flooding, knocked out power in some areas and buried ski resorts under several feet of snow.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency Tuesday for six counties — Kern, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo and Tulare — because of the extreme weather conditions.

Pacific storms have dumped more than 12 inches of rain in the Santa Monica Mountains and nearly 6 inches in downtown Los Angeles since Friday, more than a third of the city's normal annual rainfall.

The soaking rain was generally welcomed in a region that has been plagued by years of drought that have prompted mandatory water conservation measures.

But it created plenty of inconveniences. A stretch of the scenic Pacific Coast Highway north of the city remained closed after saturated hillsides sent rocks tumbling onto it late Sunday. At Mammoth Mountain ski resort, 13 feet of snow kept holiday skiers busy, but it clogged and closed mountain roads. Elsewhere, holiday shoppers dodged parking lot puddles, and rescuers plucked stranded motorists from rising creeks.

Weather Channel meteorologist Frank Giannasca said a break in the rain should arrive tonight as the storm system moves inland across the country, perhaps bringing snow to parts of the Mid-Atlantic region by Christmas. Thursday should be dry in Los Angeles, he said.

The same system will dump snow in the Plains and a wintry mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain as it pushes into the Ohio Valley, he said.

"For the rest of the country, what we're waiting to see happen is the storm that has inundated California ... start moving out into the Plains," Giannasca said. "Along the East Coast, we're going to see a lovely Christmas snow falling."

The cause of the heavy rain and snow is a deep plume of tropical moisture that's roaring into California from far out in the Pacific. The plume also extends into Nevada, Arizona, Colorado and Utah. Flooding washed away four unoccupied homes in northeast Arizona, said Jeff Hunt, chief of the Beaver Dam/Littlefield Fire District in Mojave County.

The National Weather Service predicted that snowfall will continue to be measured in feet in some of the higher elevations of the West today. The heavy snow, combined with strong and gusty winds, could create dangerous driving conditions.

"We have a pattern ... where moisture from the subtropical Pacific Ocean is running up through Hawaii and making a beeline into Southern California," Giannasca said. "Not only do you have a tremendous amount of moisture in this flow, but it's the persistence also — heavy moisture hitting the same areas over and over again."

Long Beach has seen its wettest December since 1958, and rainfall at Los Angeles International Airport was close to the record 6.49 inches set in 2004. In San Diego, more than an inch of rain fell, flooding a mall parking lot.

In Los Angeles foothill neighborhoods of the San Gabriel Mountains, crews were monitoring debris basins and runoff from mountains stripped of vegetation by wildfires, said Bob Spencer, spokesman for the Department of Public Works.

"Certainly there has been some local flooding, and we've had some rock slides on our mountain roads. But, all in all, right now we're in pretty good shape," Spencer said.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department urged evacuation of 232 homes in the foothill suburbs of La Cañada Flintridge and adjacent La Crescenta. In San Diego, several dozen homes and businesses were evacuated, but no structural damage was reported.

Kelly Markham, spokeswoman for the California Department of Transportation, said crews would test the stability of hillsides along the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles and Ventura counties before reopening. "Some rocks are still coming down there," she said.

The rainfall was quickly filling dry rivers and creek beds and washing out roadways. In San Bernardino County, the normally dry Mojave River was running 17 feet deep and overflowing onto the roadway, said Tracey Martinez, spokeswoman for the county's fire authority.

In 2005, five days of near constant rain left at least 28 dead in mudslides and drownings, including a major debris flow in the central coast town of La Conchita that killed an entire family except the father. He had gone to get ice cream for his children.

So far, authorities say, there were two traffic fatalities caused by the rain in Northern California.

http://www.usatoday.com/weather/storms/ ... torm_N.htm

This is nothing but weather engineering

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTxvWLrUeE8