Notable “parade of storms” continues over Eastern Pacific; heavy rainfall & some flooding across Northern California
From Daniel Swain at the California Weather Blog:
“Over the past two weeks, a series of strong and moist storm systems have brought wet and occasionally hazardous weather conditions to different parts of the state.
Two major low-latitude storm systems affected Southern California during the first week of January, bringing widespread heavy precipitation and flooding of varying severity. The most remarkable part of these early January systems, though, may have been the intense convective activity associated with them. Widespread thunderstorms–some of them severe–brought significant flash flooding, damaging winds, and even a couple of tornadoes. These two storms–characterized by ample atmospheric moisture, unusually high atmospheric instability, and excellent jet stream-level forcing–were highly reminiscent of the more memorable Southern California storm events during the 1982-1983 and 1997-1998 El Niño events.
Since that time, Southern California has dried out considerably as the Pacific storm track shifted northward. But it hasn’t shifted nearly as far north as during recent drought winters–the Pacific firehose has instead been aimed squarely upon the northern half (and especially the northern third) of California in recent days. Impressive double-digit rainfall totals have already been observed, and still there is much more to come in the coming days. … ”
Read more from the California Weather Blog here: Enhanced El Niño storm track has finally emerged; Active pattern likely throughout California next 2-3 months
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