Record rainfall: Over 268 mm (10.6 inches) of rain floods drought stricken California
Remnants of Hurricane "Dolores" reached southern California on July 19, 2015 dropping record breaking rainfall and causing heavy flooding. Los Angeles, San Diego and over a dozen other California cities set all-time rainfall records for the month of July.
The rain provided a temporary relief from exceptional drought affecting almost entire state of California, but it was so heavy it caused a lot of infrastructural damage.
Over 177 mm (7 inches) of rain was recorded in just a few hours before the Interstate 10 bridge collapsed forcing closure of this main roadway between Southern California and Phoenix, Arizona.
A pickup truck was swallowed up when the bridge collapsed, and its driver was stranded inside for 45 minutes while the waters roiled below. Police and motorists tied rope to the truck to keep it from washing away before he was rescued.
Data from NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) were used to estimate the extreme amount of rain that fell during the past week. This analysis included data collected from July 13 – 20, 2015.
Image credit: NASA/JAXA / SSAI, Hal Pierce. See animated version here.
Rainfall that would not have been as significant in other areas of the United States have an extra impact in bone dry areas of California.
Rainfall totals were estimated by IMERG to be over 268 mm (about 10.6 inches) in some areas of California.
Featured image: Hurricane "Dolores" remnants flood California. Credit: KESQ.
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This scenario is similar to what happens in Australia. Once before on one of The Watchers reports on the drought in the California, I mentioned that the drought will be followed by flooding rains and some didn’t believe me. Of course the damage that these floods caused is not what anyone wants, but I hope the rains help to relieve the parchment of the lands there. We often experience drought in Australia. Sometimes one region can be tinder dry and another can be in flood. The region in the ‘dry’ gets flooded eventually and the wet regions can then also turn to dust (drought). The cycles of nature have their way.
Yes you did Lulu, I remember it quite well. And you were right… turns out it was ‘sooner than expected’. It’s here: https://watchers.news/2015/06/17/california-property-values-collapse-as-water-shut-offs-begin-wealthy-community-to-go-dry-in-days-real-estate-implosion-now-inevitable/
Cheers Adonai 😉
After our last horrendous drought, many Aussie folks invested in water tanks (like we used to have in the ‘old days’). Once everyone was up and running with these tanks, our drought was broken by flooding rain and our water catchments filled to the brim again and people didn’t need to ship in water for the tanks and dams in some places. Those tanks will be necessary again one day though.
Best wishes to you 😉