The American west coast, already recently bereaved by an accumulation of historic storms, faces new heavy rains on Friday and over the weekend (Photo archives AFP)
A series of deluges have battered California in recent weeks, killing 19 people and causing flooding and power outages. And the region will know no respite.
Forecasters say the first of two cyclones to move from the Pacific Ocean to the west coast is expected to bring heavy rainfall from the north of that state to that of Washington and Oregon.
The precipitation, which will have the greatest impact, will remain concentrated along the northern California coastline and the Pacific Northwest through Friday evening, then spread south Saturday and east Sunday.” , US weather services warned Thursday.
“Northern California has been hit with heavy rains for the past two weeks and any further precipitation could lead to flash flooding.” Up to 15 cm of rain are expected in the next 48 hours around Seattle, a large city in the northwestern United States.
Part of Washington state is under avalanche warnings as the storm brings wetter and heavier snowfall to the mountains.
The North West Avalanche Center (NWAC) said it expected “dangerous and large-scale” avalanches as the weather phenomenon passed on Thursday.
Particularly to be feared are “wet snow avalanches”, which occur when wetter snow accumulates on a light snowpack, making the whole area unstable.
– Puddles and sewers –
On the heights of northern California, 1.8 m of snow could fall between Friday and Tuesday, with wind gusts pushing up to 80 km / h.
The weather service said that mountain travel was “strongly discouraged” this weekend.
Further down, flooding is possible in a huge area stretching from the famous city of San Francisco to the state of Oregon in the north.
The region is just recovering from a succession of deluges.
San Francisco had its rainiest two weeks in 150 years, straining sewers, where rainwater mixed with sewage. “Don’t jump in puddles,” warned Eileen White, a regional health official, according to the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper.
The storms have already claimed at least 19 lives in California.
Among the victims, drivers trapped by water in their vehicle, people killed by a falling tree or a couple killed in a landslide.
In the center of the state, the National Guard is helping to find a 5-year-old boy, swept away by the waves on Monday while his mother, who survived, drove him to school.
“We will continue (…) until we find him”, assured Tony Cipolla, a spokesman for the services of the sheriff of the county of San Luis Obispo, in San Luis Obispo Tribune.
California is used to extreme weather conditions, and winter storms are common. But, if it is difficult to establish a direct link between these storms in series and climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather phenomena.
However, these torrential rains will not be enough to replenish the water reserves in California. Several winters of above-normal rainfall would be needed to compensate for the drought of recent years, experts say.
AFP
