Friday Top of the Scroll: Atmospheric river inundates roads, forces water rescues across SoCal. The next storm looks worse
Heavy rain from a major atmospheric river storm moved across Southern California on Thursday, causing significant flooding and road closures — as well as several water rescues. Even before the storm system had moved on, however, officials were shifting attention to another one tracking not far behind, expected to bring even more intense and sustained precipitation. “There has been some flooding from today’s storm across parts of SoCal, especially in/near Long Beach, but the [next] system has *much greater* potential for more widespread and more serious flooding/debris flows,” Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate scientist and meteorologist, wrote in a post on X. That second storm continues to develop in the Pacific, but the National Weather Service’s latest forecasts show it bringing more rain and wind to the Los Angeles area likely by this weekend, with the potential to cause life-threatening flooding.
Related articles:
- Sacramento Bee: What’s next for Northern California weather? Here’s how long the rain will last
- San Francisco Chronicle: Severe storm to bring flood, landslide risk to these parts of California
- The Associated Press: What’s an atmospheric river? A pineapple express? AP explains the weather phenomenon