California lashed with 9th storm in third week of major winter weather events

The ninth atmospheric river in a three-week series of major winter storms is churning through California on Friday, leaving dangerous mountain driving and a high risk of flooding near swollen rivers even as the sun comes out in some areas.

Heavy snow fell in the Sierra Nevada and the National Weather Service advised against travel. Interstate 80, the highway from the San Francisco Bay Area to the ski resort of Lake Tahoe, has reopened on chain conditions after periodic weekend closures due to whiteout conditions.

“If you must travel, be prepared for hazardous travel conditions, significant travel delays and road closures,” the weather service office in Sacramento said on Twitter.

The University of California Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted Monday morning that it had recorded 126 centimeters of new snow since Friday.

A national landslide warning has been issued for the central Sierra, including the greater Tahoe area.

San Francisco’s rainfall exceeds its annual total

A barrage of atmospheric river storms has dumped rain and snow in California since the end of December, cutting power to thousands, swamping roads, toppling trees, unleashing debris flows and triggering landslides.

Monday’s system was relatively weak compared to previous storms, but the risk of flooding and mudslides remains as the state is saturated, forecasters said.

Mostly dry days are in the forecast for the week, although some areas of Northern California could see more rain by midweek.

The sun came out in San Francisco, where 51.5 cm of rain has fallen at the city’s airport since October 1, when California usually begins to record rain for the year. The average for the “water year” is 49.8 cm, “so we’ve exceeded the annual total by 8 more months,” the San Francisco weather service office tweeted.

Across the bay in Berkeley, 10 homes were evacuated Monday when a hillside collapsed, sending mud onto properties. No injuries were reported.

Up to five centimeters of rain fell Sunday in the soaked Sacramento Valley, where residents of Wilton and surrounding communities were warned to prepare to leave if the Cosumnes River rose more.

In Monterey County, the swollen Salinas River swamped farmland over the weekend and officials said some are still rising. To the east, a flood warning is still in effect for Merced County in the agricultural Central Valley, where Governor Gavin Newsom visited Saturday.

The government’s response to the deadly storm

Newsom on Monday signed an executive order to improve the nation’s emergency response and help communities affected by the damage. US President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in the country and ordered federal aid to boost local recovery efforts.

In Southern California, the sun is shining in Los Angeles, but winter storm warnings and warnings are still in effect for the mountainous region, where many roads remain impassable due to mud and rocks. Both northbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Castaic in northern LA County are closed indefinitely after a landslide.

Downtown Los Angeles set a rainfall record Saturday with 4.6 centimeters, the weather service said.

At least 20 deaths have been linked to the storm, and a five-year-old boy remains missing after being swept out of his mother’s car by flooding in San Luis Obispo County.

Forecasters continue to monitor the storm in the Pacific to see if it gains enough strength to become the country’s 10th atmospheric river.

Either way it is likely to bring only light rain and will be thrown mostly to Northern California when it makes landfall on Wednesday, state climatologist Dr. Mike Anderson said during a state weather briefing.