California is stuck in storminess, with flood threats continuing into next week
Another series of atmospheric river-enhanced storms is set to soak California as the new year begins
(CNN) — A storm that brought more soaking rain to Southern California on Thursday is on the way out, but there will be little break with a conga line of storms set to hit waterlogged California through early next week.
Evacuation warnings were issued ahead of Thursday’s storm in parts of Los Angeles County over fears of debris flows and flash flooding like what happened during a destructive Christmas-week storm.
Though Southern California had so far avoided major problems, with just flooding on some major roads, the warnings remained in place.
Flooding was most widespread on roads in the San Diego area on Thursday morning, including on parts of interstates 5 and 8. Rescue teams with the San Diego Fire Department also had to rescue people trapped in their cars in the floodwater.
Farther north, flooding closed a part of the Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach, according to Caltrans.
Flooded roads could become a familiar scene in the coming days with the state locked in a soggy pattern into early next week.
The next atmospheric river fueled-storm arrives in California late Friday into Saturday. Two more systems could then crash into the coast, one on Sunday and then another Monday into Tuesday.
Localized flooding from these storms is possible in much of the state, but more serious flooding is possible in a couple of areas.
One of those is northwest California, where a flood watch is in effect from Friday afternoon through Sunday. Southern California isn’t out of the woods either. There’s a Level 2 of 4 flooding rain threat from near Los Angeles northward to the Santa Barbara area this weekend, according to the Weather Prediction Center.
Colder air brought in by these storms will also allow snow to fall below major pass levels this weekend, including Interstate 80 through Donner Pass.
Over a foot of snow is likely at Sierra Nevada ski resorts, though exact totals remain uncertain and could make mountain travel hazardous. Some locations could see totals up to 3 or 4 feet through the weekend.
An avalanche last Friday killed a ski patroller and left another patroller injured at the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in the eastern Sierra, according to the resort. It happened after feet of snow buried the mountain range last week.
The-CNN-Wire
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