Week of storms in California, Oregon drops feet of rain and snow, winds over 100 mph
A week of repeated storms has dropped feet of rain and snow on California, with mountain wind gusts as high as 139 mph.
Parts of a house were dismantled by a landslide in Duncans Mills, California. The flattened home was seen washing away in a nearby river.
A series of atmospheric rivers over the last week brought feet of rain and snow to California, as well as wind gusts over 100 mph, and AccuWeather meteorologists say the storms aren't over yet.
Wind gusts to 139 mph
Extreme wind gusts hit California's mountaintops, with 139 mph measured at Mammoth Mountain on Saturday and 138 mph recorded Tuesday night. Several other high-elevation locations reported gusts over 100 mph.
Those highest gusts were in unpopulated high mountain areas, but wind gusts in the 40- to 60-mph range on Tuesday afternoon caused trees to fall on roadways across the state.
5 feet of snow
Mount Shasta, a ski resort in the northernmost part of California, has reported 68 inches of snow (5.67 feet) in the past seven days, with 51 inches (4.25 feet) falling in just the last three days. An avalanche warning was issued for the Tahoe area Tuesday.
Mammoth Mountain, in the southern part of the Sierra Nevada, welcomed the snow, as they had only tabulated 10 inches of snow in January. Normally one of their biggest snow months of the season, they counted 72 inches last January and 245.5 inches in the blockbuster January of 2017.
At Crater Lake National Park in Oregon, feet of snow piled up in front of the webcam showing the park's headquarters building.
2 feet of rain
As of Wednesday morning, 24.40 inches (2.1 feet) of rain had fallen at Four Trees, California. A rain gauge at Brush Creek came in second with 22.09 inches.
Nearly 200 reports of flooded roads or landslides were issued in the state over the past week, including one where a house slid into the Russian River in Forestville, 50 miles northwest of San Francisco.
CALIFORNIA, USA - FEBRUARY 4: A large slide takes out a whole house dumping in to the Russian River during heavy rain in Forestville of Sonoma County, California, United States on February 4, 2025 as an atmospheric river hits Northern California. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images)
In that city, autonomous Waymo cars kept driving through large potholes filled with water at full speed on Wednesday, stymying crews attempting to repair them.
Part of the Pacific Coast Highway was closed Tuesday in anticipation of possible mudslides or debris flows.
Some points on the coast of Northern California have reached an AR 4 level on the Scripps Insitute atmospheric river scale, which classifies atmospheric rivers by their severity from 1 to 5.
