Southern California is bracing for a cold winter storm this weekend that is expected to bring up to 5 feet of snow accumulation in certain areas.
While this forecast might curtail your outdoor weekend plans, it is excellent news for the state’s recovering water reservoirs.
California and other parts of the West faced heavy snow and rain Friday from the latest winter storm to pound the U.S., while thousands of people in Michigan shivered through extended power outages wrought by one of the worst ice storms in decades.
The National Weather Service warned of a “cold and dangerous winter storm” that would last through Saturday in California.
When we describe snow on San Diego County’s mountains, it’s typically with words like dusting and slushy. This time, we can safely use the word dumping.
Three to five feet of snow is possible on San Diego’s mountain tops by the time a winter storm combined with an atmospheric river is finished on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
A significant winter storm is expected to deliver heavy rain and snow to a wide swath of the United States this week, from the West Coast to the Northeast.
Cold air from Canada will interact with a pair of fronts, causing “numerous weather hazards” and abnormal temperatures while “almost all of the country [experiences] some form of notable weather,” the National Weather Service said.
The parade of severe storms slamming into Northern California could lead to one of the strongest seasons since the wild El Niño-fueled winter of 1997–98, given the relentless pace of weather systems marching in with little relief. And this isn’t even an El Niño year. Already, Northern California and the Central Valley have been hit by a number of history-making storms, pouring floodwaters into homes, cars, restaurants, a nursing home, freeways and underpasses.
The atmospheric river storm that was bearing down on the Bay Area Wednesday night and Thursday morning raised concerns about mudslides, power outages and other problems. And a series of new storms headed our way this weekend means the end is not yet in sight.
California has seen so much rain in the last few weeks that farm fields are inundated and normally dry creeks and drainage ditches have become torrents of water racing toward the ocean. At the same time, most of the state is still in severe drought. All that runoff raises the question — why can’t more rainwater be collected and stored for the long, dry spring and summer when it’s needed?
Widespread rain returns to San Diego County Thursday for a fifth day in a row as yet another atmospheric river impacts our state. Gov. Gavin Newsom has proclaimed a state of emergency throughout California in response to severe winter storms.
The atmospheric river storm hitting California this week presents a test for an experimental waste-capturing system that’s intended to keep plastic bottles, diapers and other trash from flowing into the Pacific. It has even captured a couch. The solar-powered system, designed to work mostly autonomously, was introduced in October at the mouth of Ballona Creek near Playa del Rey.
It was a mostly dry day Wednesday in San Diego, but another storm is on the way that could dampen New Year’s Eve celebrations. “Precipitation is over for most of San Diego County for the next couple days except for really light rain in spots until Saturday afternoon,” said National Weather Service forecaster Brian Adams, who added the storm Tuesday night dropped a half-inch to an inch of rain over much of the county.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
