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| Severe flooding in Guerneville, California today. |
We now likely have another bad one
The Russian River in northern California is forecast to reach one of its highest crests on record later this evening. That level would trash, among many other things, the popular resort town of Guerneville.
Even before tonight's expected crest, Gueneville was badly flooded. Live images early this afternoon via ABC 7 in San Francisco shows vast residential and business areas of the town already deep under water. The video showed the tops of cars barely poking above the muddy water, and water entering many dozens of homes.
The water level at Guerneville this afternoon was well over 40 feet. The expected crest tonight would be 46.1 feet. The record height of the river there is 49.7 feet in 1955. The current flood would be easily the worst in more than two decades.
By this afternoon, Guerneville was an island, with no way to drive in or out of the small city. Most of the area has or will soon be evacuated. The nearby town of Monte Rio is also under water.
Flood warnings are up for most of northern California north of a San Francisco - Yosemite line, at least in the lower and middle elevations.
An atmospheric river focused most of its fire hose intense rain from the Pacific Ocean going inland just north of San Francisco and into north-central and northeastern California. According to NOAA, atmospheric rivers are long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that resemble rivers in the sky. They transport a lot of water vapor, often from the tropics to coastal areas. These rivers can also continue well inland.
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| Another view of flooding today in the Guerneville, California area. |
When atmospheric rivers hit land, they often unleash torrential rains in a relatively narrow strip. That's just the what happened here. Most of this atmospheric river focused on an area between California's border with Oregon and the San Francisco Bay area.
Guerneville is about 75 miles north of San Francisco and lies near the epicenter of this latest atmospheric river. Reports of eight to 12 inches of rain in two days are common in the area around Guerneville. The town of Venado, in the Russian River basin, got more than 20 inches of rain in those two days.
The rain is lighter now, but the damage is done with such a huge amount of water coming out of the sky.
Flood warnings and mud slide alerts remain in effect for much of northern California, including all areas north of San Francisco, the Sacramento metro area and points north. This includes what's left of the town of Paradise, destroyed by a wildfire late last year.
In the central and northern Sierra Nevada mountains, two to five feet of snow fell with the atmospheric river, on top of already an already very deep snow cover. While lower elevation rains won't be as heavy in the coming days as they were recently, heavy snowfall will persist in the Sierra Nevada.
A 70-mile portion of Interstate 80 through the Sierra Nevada mountains is closed because of the snow, and there's no word on when it will reopen.
The California flooding comes while the south central United States is battling serious flooding from torrential rains last week. Some rivers had record high flood levels. Major flooding is ongoing along the lower Ohio River. Large stretches of the Mississippi River are also flooding.
Obviously, I can't draw a direct line between climate change and all these floods, but the trend is consistent with global warming, most scientists who look at the problem say. Flood are increasing in the United States, partly due to climate change.
Other factors are at work, too. More people are in the way of potential floods. Plus, development which puts concrete, asphalt and other impermeable surfaces over the ground don't allow water to soak in. Instead, the water runs off and makes floods worse than they otherwise would be.
Here's some video. This is what Guerneville looked like from the air today:
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