Southern California is under a dangerous flood threat with heavy rainfall impacting Los Angeles and San Diego areas, and moving eastward. Flood Watch is in effect for more than 20 million people from Southern California to central Arizona.
At approximately 17:40 PST on December 19, 2023, a brief EF-1 tornado touched down in north Oroville, California, uprooting trees and damaging buildings along its path.
The National Weather Service warns of a Moderate Risk of excessive rainfall in southern California, with potential flash flooding and mudflows, as a series of storms approach the state.
As the week before Christmas approaches, California is gearing up for a possible shift in weather patterns, with indications of a wetter regime on the horizon. AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski notes that the extent of the storminess will hinge on El Niño’s influence and other climatic factors in the coming weeks.
An evolving storm system off the California coast, forecasted to develop into at least one atmospheric river, is set to deliver substantial rainfall and snowfall across the West Coast starting this weekend. With the Northeast Pacific Ocean as the stage, the interaction of several low-pressure systems is predicted to have significant impact, particularly from November 14 to 17, as per the Atmospheric River Reconnaissance field campaign.
A recent geophysical study on California’s Long Valley Caldera has unveiled the mechanisms behind its seismic activity and uplift. The research, published in Science Advances, utilized distributed acoustic sensing and machine-learning algorithms to reach its conclusions.
A series of atmospheric rivers are slated to affect the Pacific Northwest, starting today and lasting until Monday. The most intense activity is forecasted for Sunday, October 15, 2023, with the potential for strong atmospheric conditions in coastal Oregon.
Tropical Storm “Hilary” — previously a Category 4 hurricane — reached California on August 20, 2023, marking its position as one of the rare storms to maintain integrity upon reaching the state. The storm, with surface winds over 80 km/h (50 mph), brought with it record-breaking rainfall and caused widespread flooding and power outages across the region.
A destructive landslide tore through luxury homes in Rolling Hills Estates on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Southern California on Monday, July 10, 2023. The pace of the landslide, which began on Saturday, increased through the weekend and led to the evacuation of residents.
California, under the grip of intense drought for years, experienced its highest year-over-year water gains in the last two decades, as revealed by the GRACE-FO satellite mission, a collaborative initiative between NASA and GFZ. Between October 2022 and March 2023, the state received sufficient rainfall to increase the water levels by approximately 50.8 cm (20 inches), roughly twice the average winter water gain since 2002.
