Heavy rains fell on California on Thursday, submerging some roads and triggering flood warnings, due to a storm which will be closely followed by a second winter depression.
Today’s downpours are discharged by an “atmospheric river”, a gigantic rain corridor that carries stored water vapor in the tropics around Hawaii.
As of Wednesday, significant precipitation fell in northern California. San Francisco recorded up to 2.5 centimeters of rain per hour, according to the US Weather Service (NWS).
The south of the “Golden State” and Los Angeles were affected Thursday morning. Some roads in the city were extensively flooded, and a section of the Pacific Coast Highway, the highway popular with many tourists for its breathtaking views of the coast, was closed.
Some sewers overflowed and local television showed cars submerged in water at an intersection.
The mountains east of Los Angeles should expect up to 45 centimeters of snow Thursday.
But the authorities are especially worried about a second winter depression in sight, which risks causing landslides and significant flooding.
“The biggest storm of the season” could begin on Sunday, the NWS warned.
“The exact timing, intensity and amounts (of rain) are still uncertain, but it is very likely that it will be a serious storm that will last two or three days,” its meteorologists stressed.
The west coast of the United States endured an unusually wet winter last year, due to a series of closely spaced storms that brought near-record rainfall.
These disasters caused more than twenty deaths and caused extensive damage and power outages.
However, this precipitation allowed California to replenish its water reserves after several years of intense drought.
Historically, California is accustomed to alternating between hot spells and intense rains, and it is always complicated to link a particular weather event to climate change.
However, scientists have been warning for years that global warming is disrupting the climate and increasing the frequency of extreme events, whether storms or heatwaves.
