President Joe Biden issued an emergency declaration Monday for California to support storm response and relief efforts in more than a dozen counties including Sacramento, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles, as the state faces more rain following last week’s “bomb cyclone.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom said 12 people died as a result of violent weather during the past 10 days, and he warned that this week’s storms could be even more dangerous and urged people to stay home.
The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific and are capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow. The rain and snow expected over the next couple of days come after California has already been walloped by storms that last week knocked out power to thousands, flooded streets, and battered the coastline with high surf.
The first of the newest, heavier storms prompted the weather service to issue a flood watch for a large portion of Northern and Central California, with 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of rain expected through Wednesday in the already saturated Sacramento-area foothills.
In the Los Angeles area, stormy conditions were expected late Monday and Tuesday, with the potential for as much as 8 inches (20 centimeters) of rain in foothill areas. High surf was also expected, with large waves on west-facing beaches.
Since Dec. 26, San Francisco received more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain, while Mammoth Mountain, a popular ski area in the Eastern Sierra, got nearly 10 feet (3 meters) of snow, the National Weather Service said.
The storms won’t be enough to officially end California’s ongoing drought, but they have helped. State Climatologist Michael Anderson said at a weekend news briefing that officials were closely monitoring Monday’s storm and another behind it and were keeping an eye on three other systems farther out in the Pacific.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Californians can expect to see a break in the rain after Jan. 18.
“That is my best guess right now, which is good because it will give the rivers in Northern California, and now in Central California, a chance to come down,” he said.