Weekend rain poses flood risks for California

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Melissa Constanzer has an update on the California flood risk as heavy rain continues to impact the West Coast.

Transcript

00:00We do have a lot of wet weather still coming in. This is Montecito, the view of the boards wet

00:05there as you're maybe taking your stroll but like I said there's going to be rain still to come here

00:10as well as across the northeast. There was some grapple this week. That's where snowflakes kind

00:15of freeze together and then they melt a little bit then they stick together and then refreeze

00:20into little balls and so we did have a little bit of that in North Jersey this week but we'll be

00:25talking some rain and even some icy patterns for the northeast. We're going to start though in the

00:29southwest through California where like you saw there the heavy rain already working in. It looks

00:34like there's some rumbles of thunder just south of Los Angeles there so we'll see that work its way

00:39into places like Huntington Beach potentially over the next couple of minutes. This is some very heavy

00:45rain as that band gets through and it's not the end of it. There's going to be a lot more wet weather

00:50to come so the raindrops on the lens have already been found there from some of our earth cameras in

00:55Los Angeles and this is a big slug of moisture that is fairly warm too. This is not going to be a

01:00cold pattern where the mountains of southern California pick up much in the way of snow. In

01:05fact snow levels probably for most of the event largely above 7,000 feet which even limits what

01:11action will have across the passes of the Sierra too. It's going to be a rainmaker. It's going to be a flood

01:16potential as we go through today into tonight and then we'll see another storm come in tomorrow.

01:23First up today though you can see all the wet weather here. Fresno, Bakersfield, Los Angeles,

01:27San Diego, Las Vegas all dealing with that heavy rain potential. Even areas like Phoenix pick up on

01:34a few showers likely through the afternoon so expect some travel setbacks in those locations.

01:39Taking you through the next few hours you can see already what's happening just for the late

01:43morning. Big slug of heavy rain there towards San Diego. It means that more of those streets could

01:48provide a little bit of flooding action. We do have flood watches all across southern California

01:54and then we have the winter weather advisers where we do expect a little bit of snow for the high

01:58Sierra. But we'll start with where that rain is headed and you can see it just spin its way on in

02:03as we head into the afternoon. There will be the chance for more thunderstorms to develop here

02:08as this works its way on in. Then the back of the low comes through central California. You will have

02:14the chance for more rainfall in the Central Valley even into tonight as the snow pushes into the

02:20Sierra. Again higher elevations more likely to get that but we'll have some snow at the passes before this

02:25clears out getting into Sunday afternoon. And you might be thinking all right we're finished with it

02:29it's moving east but here comes this next storm driving down the coast and this is going to kick in

02:35some more rainfall potential into Monday across southern California. But first let's get through this

02:41first storm system which does provide some very heavy rain. For Los Angeles we could see two to

02:47four inches of rain. To put that into perspective for you because I think when you go to by Florida

02:53standards that's a drop in the bucket. And for the east coast many of us east of the Rockies

02:58two four inches of rain may not seem like a lot but for southern California two inches of rain is a

03:04monthly rainfall total during the wet season which we're not even there yet. That would put us above

03:09historical average for the month of November. On top of it if you get four inches of rain we don't

03:14even typically get that for an entire month of any part of the year. So that's really a lot of rainfall.

03:20On top of everything too a little bit of snow through the passes here we're looking at two to four inches

03:24as we head into tomorrow night and a spot like Donner's Pass as some of those higher passes there

03:30will pick up more of a foot or greater and that has to do with this next storm system then sliding south

03:36this one a little bit cooler as it provides some rain and mountain snow and this one will also have

03:41some rain for southern California too.

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