Bomb Cyclone and ‘Atmospheric River’ Pummel California With Rain and Wind

U.S.|Bomb Cyclone and ‘Atmospheric River’ Pummel California With Rain and Wind

California bore the brunt connected Sunday of what meteorologists referred to arsenic a “bomb cyclone” and an “atmospheric river,” a convergence of storms that brought much than fractional a ft of rainfall to parts of the Bay Area, on with precocious winds, concerns astir flash floods and the imaginable for dense snowfall successful the Sierra Nevada.

The National Weather Service warned that the rainfall could origin mudslides, particularly successful areas scorched by wildfires.

From Marin County to the country conscionable southbound of Big Sur on the Pacific Coast, flash flood watches were successful effect until precocious Sunday nighttime and, successful immoderate areas, aboriginal Monday morning, including parts of the San Francisco peninsula.

The convergence of storms comes astatine a challenging clip for California, which has been besieged by wildfires and drought, the effect of utmost upwind brought connected by clime change.

As of 10:45 a.m. section clip connected Sunday, astatine slightest 50,000 inferior customers successful the Bay Area had mislaid power, according to a Pacific Gas and Electric outage map. The astir outages were reported successful Sonoma, San Mateo and Marin Counties.

At San Francisco International Airport, 139 flights had been delayed and 52 others had been canceled arsenic of 10:10 a.m. section time, said Cathy Morrison, an airdrome work manager.

“The atmospheric stream is aiming a occurrence hose, if you will, into our area,” Sean Miller, a meteorologist for the Weather Service successful Monterey, Calif., the forecast bureau for the Bay Area, said connected Sunday.

An atmospheric stream is simply a concentrated plume of moisture that extends implicit the ocean, typically successful the troposphere, the lowest furniture of the atmosphere, Mr. Miller said, adding that the existent trough was angled toward the North Bay.

In the Pacific Northwest, a weaponry cyclone, a benignant of tempest known for its falling atmospheric pressure, was expected to propulsion the atmospheric stream south, affecting areas southbound of San Francisco, Mr. Miller said.

“This is much emblematic of thing we thin to spot successful December oregon January,” helium said, pointing retired that the confluence of the 2 meteorological phenomena was “anomalous.”

On Tuesday, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation extending California’s drought emergency statewide and asked residents to redouble their h2o conservation efforts. This has been the 2nd driest twelvemonth connected grounds successful authorities history, with near-record debased retention successful California’s largest reservoirs, the governor’s bureau said.

Severe drought conditions, worsened by clime change, proceed to impact overmuch of the Western United States and adjacent the bluish portion of the Great Plains.

While droughts are not uncommon successful the region, scientists accidental that clime change, successful the signifier of warming temperatures and shifts successful precipitation, is making the concern worse.