More flooding? Another ‘atmospheric river’ storm is set to strike the Sacramento region
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Northern California Storms
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Hundreds remained without power Tuesday morning in Sacramento County as the region continued to face the aftermath of an unprecedented New Year’s Eve atmospheric river storm that breached levees, flooded roadways including Highway 99, prompted evacuation orders in rural areas and killed at least one person.
And there’s more severe, dangerous weather to come.
Point Pleasant in south Sacramento County, near the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers, remained under an evacuation order Tuesday morning. Residents of Wilton, where two private levees failed Sunday, remained in a shelter-in-place order.
Close to 2,400 SMUD customers were in outages as of 7:45 a.m. Tuesday, according to the utility company’s website, including nearly 500 in the Wilton and Herald areas, plus hundreds more across Land Park, North Sacramento, Arden Arcade and other neighborhoods.
More than 150,000 homes and businesses across Sacramento County lost power at one point Saturday evening, when gusts roared up to 60 mph in some parts of the county, felling trees and knocking down power lines. Power restoration has taken days in some areas.
A stretch of Highway 99 closed Sunday due to flooding reopened Monday morning. The highway remained open Tuesday. Crews on Sunday found a motorist dead inside a submerged vehicle along Dillard Road, near Highway 99.
Another major storm forecast to arrive Wednesday could once again pummel Northern California, with the National Weather Service predicting the Sacramento region could see up to 3 inches of rain and gusts up to 50 mph, again producing a high risk of widespread power outages and flooding in low-lying areas.
The weather service has issued a flood watch, in place from early Wednesday through Friday morning for most of interior Northern California, including the entire Sacramento Valley.
Forecasters predict the heaviest rain in that system, which could include thunderstorms, will fall Wednesday evening.
“Moderate to heavy rain is expected on already saturated soils Wednesday and Thursday,” the weather service’s Sacramento office said in a social media post.
“This could lead to areas of rapidly developing roadway & urban flooding, with possible impassable roadways due to flooding or flood damage, and rises on creeks, streams, and rivers.”
The incoming storm is the result of yet another atmospheric river, brought on by a “plume of moisture” that has formed over the Pacific, according to weather service forecast bulletins.
Saturday’s storm put the finishing touches on what the weather service said was Sacramento’s fifth-wettest December ever recorded, with 9½ inches falling downtown.
Another 0.84 inches fell downtown on Monday, according to weather service data, with dry conditions expected Tuesday before the midweek downpour. Light precipitation was forecast for other parts of the Sacramento Valley on Tuesday.
After the storm crescendos Wednesday and Thursday, forecasts for Sacramento show wet but unsettled conditions.
The weather service on Tuesday said more systems are expected to bring “moderate to heavy” precipitation to Northern California this coming weekend through next Monday, with details still “uncertain.”
More mountain snow in forecast
Meanwhile in the mountains, parts of the central Sierra Nevada range could see another 2 to 3 feet of snow between Wednesday and Thursday, with snowfall starting at elevations as low as 3,000 feet, according to weather service forecasts.
Close to 4 feet of snow fell during the weekend storm at elevations above 7,000 feet in the greater Lake Tahoe area, according to the weather service’s Reno office.
During the height of that storm, heavy snow bands dropped snow at a rate of more than 7 inches per hour in some areas.
Sacramento County to ratify emergency declaration
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors will meet virtually at 1 p.m. Tuesday to ratify a local emergency proclamation in response to the storms and flooding.
“The continued burden on our levee system, first responders, emergency operations personnel, cities, and special districts require the full authority and support of a proclamation of emergency,” the meeting agenda item reads, in part.
The proclamation states that significant storms are expected to affect the county “through the week of Jan. 9 and possibly beyond.”
Emergency responders on Sunday and Monday had to rescue motorists and residents from vehicles and homes, sometimes by boat, Cosumnes CSD Fire Department officials said. Dan Quiggle, a deputy fire chief for the department, said Monday that crews had removed well over 50 people from their vehicles.
This story was originally published January 3, 2023 at 8:37 AM.
