New Year’s storm leaves at least 2 dead in California
An atmospheric river brought a plume of moisture to the Golden State, resulting in major flooding, mudslides and over four feet of snow.
Torrential rainfall triggered flooding, prompting officials to close roads and order evacuations for parts of Northern California on Dec. 31.
At least two people have died after a powerful storm system brought drenching rain and heavy snowfall to Northern and Central California over the holiday weekend. The storm created travel chaos as transportation officials were forced to close several highways due to flooding while some motorists needed to be rescued due to blizzardlike conditions near Lake Tahoe.
The first reported fatality occurred on Saturday when park rangers from the California Department of Parks and Recreations confirmed the death of a 72-year-old man. His body was discovered under a 120-foot cypress tree at the Lighthouse Field State Beach in Santa Cruz, a city located along the Central California coast.
After three levees broke along the Cosumnes River on Saturday, significant flooding was reported in Sacramento County. More than a 1-mile stretch of State Route 99, just south of Elk Grove, was closed as floodwaters inundated roadways and vehicles. Cellphone video from the area showed water up to the windows of multiple vehicles in the area, NBC News reported.
The Cosumnes Fire Department in Sacramento County was conducting rescues for stranded motorists when rescue personnel discovered a person inside a submerged vehicle near Route 99. The person was later pronounced dead, CBS Sacramento reported.
Sunday morning, the Sacramento County Office of Emergency Services issued an evacuation warning for those living in the Point Pleasant, Glanville Tract and Franklin Pond communities. Officials said that residents in these areas should leave before roadways were cut off by rising floodwaters.
By Sunday evening, the office of emergency services upgraded the evacuation warning to an evacuation order for the Point Pleasant area, warning that flooding was "imminent" and that floodwaters can be particularly dangerous after sunset.
"It is expected that the flooding from the Cosumnes River and the Mokelumne River is moving southwest toward I-5 and could reach these areas in the middle of the night," the office tweeted. "Livestock in the affected areas should be moved to higher ground.
Part of Twin Cities Road, an east-west street in Sacramento County, was closed on Monday after floodwaters covered a section of the road and left motorists stranded. Fire crews rescued a woman Monday morning after her vehicle became trapped on the roadway, Bridgette Bjorio, a reporter for ABC 10, wrote on Twitter.
An evacuation order was also issued for areas in Santa Cruz County after rising water levels on the San Lorenzo River prompted a flood warning. In one neighborhood in the city of Felton, hundreds of residents were told to leave their homes, KSWB reported.
Water levels reached 21 feet at one point on the river, 5 feet above the flood level. The river and neighboring Corralitos Creek both crested and receded by Saturday evening.
AccuWeather meteorologists say an atmospheric river was to blame for the wide plume of moisture that brought heavy rain to the West Coast over the weekend.
Not only did downtown San Francisco experience its wettest calendar day since Nov. 5, 1994, due to the atmospheric river on Saturday, but it was also the city's second-wettest day in 174 years of record-keeping.
The downtown area picked up a whopping 5.46 inches of rain and was just 0.08 of an inch shy of tying the current record. The single-day rainfall accounted for nearly 50% of the entirety of the rain that fell in December.
The drenching rain also swept through Southern California, with close to 1 inch falling in downtown Los Angeles and San Diego. Just under 0.50 of an inch of rain fell in the desert city of Palm Springs, California.
Nearly 5 feet of snow measured in the Sierra Nevada
In the higher elevations, the quick change from rain to intense snow on New Year's Eve resulted in feet of heavy, wet snow and clogged roadways.
On Interstate 80, motorists became stranded and needed to be rescued amid blizzardlike conditions, The Associated Press reported.
"Driving conditions are dangerous and treacherous, travel is not advised," the California Highway Patrol said on Twitter. "There are dozens and dozens of vehicles stuck on the freeway and county roads, and we are responding to calls as quickly as possible. Tow companies are backed up and will take hours to respond to you."
This Saturday, Dec. 31, 2022, photo released by Caltrans District 3 shows vehicles stranded for several hours waiting for crews to clean up the roadway at Highway 50 closed at Sand Flat to Meyers due to weather conditions in Pyramid Creek, Calif. (Caltrans District 3 via AP)
More than 4 feet of snow accumulated in parts of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). Mammoth Mountain Ski Area, located within the Sierra Nevada, reported a storm total of nearly five feet.
"Our total from this most recent storm was 47-59 inches of heavy, wet snow that will be an incredible base-builder for one long season ahead," officials with Mammoth Mountain Ski Area stated on Monday morning. "Our outside operations team is still hard at work deicing mid-mountain chairlifts this morning to continue expanding terrain availability. Avalanche mitigation will be in full effect this morning, so please be mindful of all closures as avalanche danger is extremely high."
As of Monday, the snowfall total for the season at the ski resort surpassed 200 inches. The ski resort averages 400 inches of snowfall each season.
The ski resort closed numerous lifts on Saturday due to the heavy snow, high winds, low visibility and ice formation. On Monday, only 99 of the 175 trails were open.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, located on the Sierra Nevada mountain range at 6,894 feet, measured 33.9 inches of snow from this storm. At one point during the storm, the lab measured snowfall rates of 7.5 inches per hour.
AccuWeather forecasters warn that a storm train will continue to deliver more unsettled weather to California this week.
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