California, already soaked after a series of storms that killed at least 19 people, must undergo a new intense episode of precipitation on Sunday evening and Monday, before drier weather sets in.
The western state, the most populous in the United States, is about to see its ninth episode of sustained rain in nearly three weeks.
On Saturday, waterspouts had already hit its Pacific coast, causing the overflow of many rivers and flooding urban areas, homes and agricultural land dried up by an interminable drought.
Sunday should bring a lull, before a new “atmospheric river” – a meteorological phenomenon that brings huge quantities of water from the tropics from the sky – pours out, authorities have warned.
“This is only the eighth atmospheric river of the nine we anticipate,” Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom warned on Saturday. It is not finished. »
The new expected rainfall “could, in some places, cause flooding” because the soil, waterlogged, saturates, noted Sunday morning the US Weather Service (NWS).
Beach volleyball
In Santa Cruz County (south of San Francisco), where several areas remained under flood alerts, the city beach was still invaded Sunday by tree trunks and waste carried by the San Lorenzo River the past two weeks.
But gray skies and early morning showers didn’t stop Evan Short and three friends from having a game of beach volleyball amid the debris.
“I saw a little lull in the weather and convinced other desperate friends to join us,” the 29-year-old data analyst told Agence France-Presse (AFP). between the drops in recent days. “Next week there should be a few days without rain, finally, so it will be good. »
The succession of these storms since the end of December could indeed soon come to an end.
The NWS is indeed forecasting for the weekend “a period of drier weather over California and the southwestern United States”.
retain water
California will then perhaps, finally, have time to repair the damage, restore electricity – some 20,000 homes were still without it on Sunday morning – and learn the lessons of these bad weather “unprecedented on the scale of our lives” in the Governor’s words.
In San Francisco, the past three or so months have been the wettest since the winter of 1972-73. At the same time, California, whose agriculture feeds North America, is facing an unprecedented long-term drought.
However, the torrential rains of recent weeks will not reverse the trend. They “will not be enough to refill Lake Mead”, warns the NWS, for example, about this gigantic reservoir on the Colorado River which waters California and whose level has been inexorably falling for years.
But the water control and retention infrastructures – dykes, artificial lakes, constrained riverbeds – “were designed 40, 50 years ago” for “a world that no longer exists”, estimated Saturday M .Newsom. By blocking the runoff of water, these developments limit the vital recharge of groundwater, explain specialists.
The Democrat, one of the most committed in the United States on climate change, intends to tackle these issues, as “the heats get much hotter, the dry drier and […] and more humid humidity”. Global warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, say scientists.