California braces for more rain with storms on the way

Forecasters are forecasting a major storm system that will bring heavy rain to California this Wednesday and Thursday, but with more intensity from Wednesday night to noon Thursday.

The storms, which will be accompanied by strong winds, threaten “a massive rainfall event” in the southern California coastal mountains, especially in the Santa Ynez Range, in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

All of this could lead to dangerous conditions, they warned. On January 9, 2018, the community of Montecito, in the foothills of the Santa Ynez Mountains, suffered a massive mudslide that killed 23 people.

Two intense storms in the past week have left many Californians bracing for the worst.

In San Francisco, crews were scrambling to remove debris, leaves and sediment that clogged some of the 25,000 drains during Saturday’s rains.

The National Weather Service is forecasting up to 6 inches of rain in San Francisco with winds up to 30 mph and gusts to 60 mph.

Mayor London Breed said city workers probably won’t be able to clear all the drains before Wednesday and called on the public to prepare sandbags to prevent flooding and avoid walking on the streets.

Local officials distributed some 8,500 sandbags on Tuesday and advised residents not to get them if they haven’t experienced flooding in the past.

There is a silver lining to the storms: The snow on California’s mountains will thaw sooner than it has in 40 years.

Nearly a third of California’s water each year comes from snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern portion of the state. A complex system of canals and dams capture this water in large reservoirs so that it can be used the rest of the year when it does not rain or snow.

That’s why authorities carefully monitor how much snow there is in the mountains, and Tuesday was the first day of the formal winter snow count, an event in which Californians get their first glimpse of just how useful winter will be for them.

Two more strong storms are expected this week in the state, but they will be cooler and could dump up to 5 feet of additional snow between them.

These storms have not been enough to end the drought that has affected California for four years. Most of the reservoirs are still well below their capacity.

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