(Los Angeles) Several flood warnings were still in effect Thursday in California, after the passage of a violent storm which deprived tens of thousands of people of electricity killing at least two, and likely to be followed by d other depressions according to meteorologists.
The central and northern part of the state was hit by a storm that generated gusts measured up to 160 km / h in places and brought torrential rain. The phenomenon caused numerous floods, cut roads and deprived up to more than 190,000 homes of electricity, according to the PowerOutage site.
At least two people died, including a toddler who was in a mobile home crushed by a tree.
This storm swept through California as the region was still suffering from a series of severe lows that swept through it in late December.
The last deluge dated back to New Year’s Eve: it had also caused floods and power cuts and had left the ground saturated with water. According to the US Weather Service (NWS), the city of San Francisco has just experienced its ten rainiest days since 1871, with 25 cm of precipitation.
The rain was beginning to subside on Thursday, but authorities continued to urge caution. Other rain fronts are expected in the next few days and the soggy soils are unable to absorb this surplus.
Flood alerts “remain in effect for both central and coastal California regions through Friday morning,” according to the NWS.
The service forecasts a next rainy episode over northern California and southwestern Oregon as early as Friday evening. “Additional rainfall in the range of 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15.2 cm) […] could exacerbate the risk of flooding across a completely saturated region,” he warns.
Several episodes of heavy rainfall could hit California through mid-January, according to the NWS.
The rain for the past two days came from an “atmospheric river,” a narrow, river-like band in the atmosphere that carries huge amounts of moisture from the tropics.
Far from being exceptional in winter, this phenomenon was accompanied by a “cyclonic bomb”, a system capable of causing a sudden drop in pressure and generating violent winds, to give rise to the storm.
While it is difficult to establish a direct link between this storm and climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events.
Like the rest of the American West, California is suffering from a widespread drought that has lasted for more than two decades. In many areas hit by large fires, soils deprived of vegetation are now more vulnerable to flooding and landslides.