Atmospheric river to bring flood risk to California

AccuWeather

An atmospheric river will bring heavy rainfall to Northern California, which could lead to snowmelt, flooding and landslides this weekend. This can potentially affect travel and cause road closures.

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00:00living in California and forecasting California. I think there's not one weather phenomenon that

00:07really strikes fear into anybody like an atmospheric river and that's what we're

00:12going to be looking at here this weekend. This weekend and even well into next week as well

00:19we're looking at a series of storms coming along pulling an atmospheric river that originates all

00:25the way back to north of Hawaii and this is going to bring in episodes of rain some of it heavy at

00:30times probably in two main batches one today into tomorrow another batch early next week and we're

00:37talking about a lot of rain before it's said and done by the end of the day Wednesday next week

00:43we're talking a foot to maybe as much as 15 inches in the west facing foothills of the

00:49Sierra and northern California that's a lot of rain. Yeah let's take a look at that Ken I mean

00:54this has been inundating Hawaii that we've had flooding in Honolulu it's a little upper low

00:59north of the islands but you know people often ask what's an atmospheric river it's a river of

01:04moisture in the atmosphere that goes from point a to point b and I think this satellite pretty

01:09much demonstrates that we have an atmospheric river coming to California. Oh that's that's right

01:14that low out there north of Hawaii is not going to move very much over the next several days

01:18but that atmospheric river you see headed northeastward that's going to continue to

01:22send that fire hose of moisture right toward northern California all weekend long and then

01:27a storm dropping down for the north and really activates it even more as we get in early next

01:32week. Yeah and Ken let's talk about snow levels initially in the Sierra they're going to be very

01:38high but then start to drop once that upper low in the Gulf of Alaska comes southward this weekend

01:44and then in the northern California early next week. Snow levels are going to be rising probably

01:51about 6,500 feet maybe a little higher than that as we go through the next 24 to 36 hours stay high

01:57into early Monday and then really drop maybe down to even a place like Redding could get a little

02:02snow before it's all said and done with. So I'm looking right now that the ski areas in northern

02:09California are probably going to end up with five to eight feet of snow at least before it's all

02:14said and done with by sometime on Wednesday of next week that's a lot of snow. And Ken that is

02:21an area you know what the northern Sierra has been well I think they're above the historical average

02:26for snow it's the central and certainly the southern Sierra that's running behind.

02:30And they will get significant snow in those places as well the most significant will be

02:36probably Tahoe on northward but even in places southern California Sierras and the central

02:43Sierras we're probably looking at a couple few feet of snow which is very very much needed. Now

02:49let's talk about southern California there's going to be a window of opportunity there by the middle

02:54part of next week. That's right and you you said it exactly right Tuesday Wednesday is the time

03:00period that we're looking for the rain to get into southern California not before then in fact the

03:04weather's going to get nicer in southern California with warmer weather in the next few days but

03:09southern California looking for rain sometimes starting on Tuesday continuing into Wednesday

03:13a month a little uncertain but I'm looking at a moderate rainfall right now maybe on the maybe

03:20like it was earlier with the last storm we had and that's why I'm concerned about there is the

03:24chance for renewed mudslides and debris flows by late Tuesday Wednesday next week. All right

03:31California expert Ken Clark. Ken thanks for joining us here on AccuWeather Early. We always appreciate

03:38your insight. You're welcome Bernie.

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