"10 Year" storm for California - Spillway Collapse Update

LA rain is now trending on Twitter: https://twitter.com/hashtag/LARain?src=tren&data_id=tweet%3A832717273672462336

Flash flood warnings are in effect for Ventura, Los Angeles, Kern, and Santa Barbara counties.

Flight delays are now up to 129 minutes at LAX due to wind.

Egads! Just saw this on NWS Sacramento Twitter feed:

[size=83]Today's storm is impacting all of #California. But the next one will be bigger and more impactful for #NorCal early next week #CAStorm #cawx[/size]

https://twitter.com/NWSSacramento

Yeah, Monday will be our day 8O

We’ll be getting some of that down here too. Forecast for Monday:

Washington’s Birthday
Rain. The rain could be heavy at times. High near 62. Breezy. Chance of precipitation is 90%.

Over 60,000 people without power in SoCal.

Looks like we are going to get more than our fair share from this next storm. Flood watches have been posted that includes my area as well.

[size=83]...FLOOD WATCH IN EFFECT FROM SUNDAY AFTERNOON THROUGH LATE MONDAY NIGHT... The National Weather Service in San Francisco has issued a
  • Flood Watch for a portion of western California…including
    the following areas…Coastal North Bay Including Point Reyes
    National Seashore…East Bay Hills and the Diablo Range…East
    Bay Interior Valleys…Mountains Of San Benito County And
    Interior Monterey County Including Pinnacles National Park…
    North Bay Interior Valleys…North Bay Mountains…Northern
    Monterey Bay…Northern Salinas Valley/Hollister Valley and
    Carmel Valley…San Francisco…San Francisco Bay Shoreline…
    San Francisco Peninsula Coast…Santa Clara Valley Including
    San Jose…Santa Cruz Mountains…Santa Lucia Mountains and
    Los Padres National Forest…Southern Monterey Bay and Big Sur
    Coast and Southern Salinas Valley/Arroyo Seco and Lake San
    Antonio.

  • Impacts include enhanced runoff/flooding in low lying areas and
    waterway, rising water levels/flooding in areal streams, creeks
    and rivers, increased risk of mudslides in steep terrain, downed
    trees and power lines, and damaged or washed out roadways.[/size]

[size=83]An atmospheric river storm pattern will return to Bay Area beginning Sunday morning and extending through the early week. Rainfall from this system will be most intense Sunday night into Monday, with rain accumulation as high as 4-6 inches in the Santa Cruz Mountains and other portions of the Coast Range generally north of the Monterey Bay. Widespread flooding and additional mudslides are likely, given recent rains and enhanced seasonal soil moisture and creek levels. High winds are likely, but will not reach velocities as high as Friday night's system.[/size]

Just saw that Maxwell (N of Sacramento on 5) is flooded, it hasn’t rained much up this way today.

http://www.krcrtv.com/news/local/northstate/maxwell-heavily-flooded-evacuation-centers-opened-in-williams/342132619

Wow, I hadn’t heard about that one. The flooding is covering such a large area. And that’s going to continue to be a problem as long as it keeps raining. The soil is so saturated that any more rain we get, is only going to cause more flooding and mud/land slides.

The effects of this storm have made it on to TV here in the UK. They showed some video of a car going into a sink hole on top of another one. Looks pretty bad, strange thing was that our UKMO weather man had not heard of the term being used over there to describe this effect - a bombogenesis - apparently they use a different term over here, all amounts to the same thing though a pretty nasty set of conditions.

Stay safe guys…

Stuart

I don’t believe I had heard the term until yesterday, and was surprised to find it’s apparently valid and not another media created apocalypse :roll:

“Explosive cyclogenesis (also referred to as a weather bomb, meteorological bomb, explosive development, or bombogenesis) refers in a strict sense to a rapidly deepening extratropical cyclonic low-pressure area.”

Did they show the [url=http://jalopnik.com/fire-truck-plunges-into-crater-as-storms-annihilate-sou-1792513307]firetruck video[\url] too? (Sorry for the indirect link, comments there may be a bit salty.) The firefighters had already bailed out when they felt the back wheels sinking.

I could not remember the phrase our UKMO guy used but you nailed that… it was Explosive cyclogenesis…

That one was on the news this morning…

Stuart

the term weather bomb I belive was started here in NZ some years ago
its when a low deepens 24 hpa in 24 hours
and the energy released is like a bomb going off

24 hpa = 0.7" inHg 8O

we do get lows (explosive cyclogenesis) deepen that fast every few years
we had one just recently :slight_smile:
you need a good jet stream
and then then a tropical air mass meeting a polar airmass (australia helps to set that up, one air mass gets deflected and the other airmass has to go up and under and around sort of thing, to meet in the tasman sea :slight_smile:

The NWS predicted it but I haven’t seen any confirmation that there was that big a drop during this recent cycle. Anyway looks the south is off the hook for the moment and northern cal will be getting the next one.

Meanwhile at the Oroville dam most of the water has given up on the main spillway and is forging a new path.

Also in the LA Times today some interesting insight into how we got into this mess.

Checking my weather history, I guess I found some evidence of it here. Starting on Feb 16 the max pressure was 29.94 in. the pressure continued dropping thru Feb 17 bottoming out at 29.11 in. with a difference of .83 in. The corresponding graphs for Feb 16 and Feb 17 are attached.

Feb 16
Maximum pressure 29.942 in. on day 16 at time 11:01
Minimum pressure 29.710 in. on day 16 at time 23:46

Feb 17
Maximum pressure 29.714 in. on day 17 at time 00:02
Minimum pressure 29.112 in. on day 17 at time 17:31


L.A. Times CA weather update

It’s been windy in the mountains 8O

[quote]On Tuesday, dramatic gusts were recorded by sensors in the Lake Tahoe Basin, where Ward Peak had a 199-mph gust, according to the weather service. Sierra Crest recorded 193 mph, and Biggs had 184 mph.

Not too far from me.

Photos: Severe flooding forces hundreds of water rescues around San Jose, California
http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/photos-severe-flooding-forces-hundreds-of-water-rescues-around-san-jose-california/70000918

Interesting read.

Every 200 years California suffers a storm of biblical proportions