A little more rain is expected for Central and Southern California today, though most of it will be gone by afternoon
The most significant heavy rainfall threat is expected to persist through this morning, before the Pacific cold front sweeps the bulk of the atmospheric river plume eastward into the Great Basin today. Until then, however, locally significant flooding impacts are possible over the Sierra Nevada foothills, LA metro, and coastal Southern California given the degree of soil saturation from earlier rainfall.
Wind gusts of up to 100 mph were recorded yesterday in California, toppling trees, including one that blocked lanes on a freeway south of San Francisco.
State Highway 1 remains closed between Santa Cruz and Monterey near the city of Watsonville (about 80 miles south of San Francisco), due to flooding. Highway 1 has been closed since Sunday, and will remain so until workers can effectively repair a nearby levee that caused damage to the nearby community of Pajaro. Then road workers will assess the damage to the roadway and repair before the critical highway will be reopened.
Rainfall amounts went from about 3/4 of an inch at San Francisco International Airport to over 9 inches at Shasta Dam in Northern California. Rainfall at Los Angeles International Airport was just shy of 2 inches. Snowfall in the Sierra Nevada was upwards of a foot or more. Heavy rain at lower elevations of the Sierra are increasing what is called "snow load' where existing snow absorbs rain and causes toppling trees and roofs burdened with the snow. Snow water content is near record levels in the central Sierra and above record levels in the southern Sierra.
With some reservoirs releasing water, in what has been a drought stricken state, water on some streams will flow with a force that hasn't been seen in years.
Though some of the state will see on and off showers most of this week, the next potential heavy rain is predicted for early next week.
This winter, California has been hit by 10 previous atmospheric rivers, which are long plumes of moisture from the Pacific that stretch from tropical waters near Hawaii all the way to the coastline of the western states.