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The California flood of 1605 was a massive flood that submerged large portions of present-day California (once known as Alta California). The megaflood was a result of sustained major rain storms across the region, enhanced by an unusually powerful atmospheric river . [ 1 ]
In early February 2024, two atmospheric rivers brought extensive flooding, intense winds, and power outages to portions of California. The storms caused record-breaking rainfall totals to be observed in multiple areas, as well as the declaration of states of emergency in multiple counties in Southern California.
Water vapor imagery of the eastern Pacific Ocean from the GOES 11 satellite, showing a large atmospheric river aimed across California in December 2010. This particularly intense storm system produced as much as 26 in (660 mm) of precipitation in California and up to 17 ft (5.2 m) of snowfall in the Sierra Nevada during December 17–22, 2010.
In 2012, hydrologists and meteorologists concluded that the precipitation was likely caused by a series of atmospheric rivers that hit the Western United States along the entire West Coast, from Oregon to Southern California. [6] An atmospheric river is a wind-borne, deep layer of water vapor with origins in the tropics, extending from the ...
Every county in California has experienced a flood, which is mostly likely to be caused by an atmospheric river, which is a narrow corridor of moisture in the air that travels a long distance to produce heavy rainfall. [4] The state of California spends more than US$2.8 billion annually on maintaining or building flood control projects. [5]
A USGS model image shows the enormous atmospheric river that may have been present during the 1861–1862 flood event.. The ARkStorm (for Atmospheric River 1,000) is a hypothetical megastorm, whose proposal is based on repeated historical occurrences of atmospheric rivers and other major rain events first developed and published by the Multi-Hazards Demonstration Project (MHDP) of the United ...
The 1997 California New Years Floods resulted from a series of winter storms, from December 26 to January 3 of 1997, fed with tropical moisture by an atmospheric river. It impacted Northern California, resulting in some of the most devastating flooding since the Great Flood of 1862 .
In addition to a sudden snow melt, some places received an estimated 8.5 feet (2,600 mm) of rain, [5] leading to the worst flooding in recorded history of California, Oregon, and Nevada, known as the Great Flood of 1862. Both the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys flooded, and there was extensive flooding and mudslides throughout the region.