The last installment of a parade of storms barreled into the West Coast on Sunday, unloading more heavy rain that resulted in serious flooding and debris flows across drought-stricken and wildfire-ravaged California and even breaking some all-time 24-hour precipitation records.
The storm was the last in a train of storms from the Pacific Ocean that, along with an atmospheric river of moisture, had been impacting areas from British Columbia, Canada, to parts of Southern California since the middle of last week.
The heavy rain triggered flooding, which resulted in a number of high-water rescues, and slick driving conditions contributed to traffic accidents across the San Francisco Bay Area. The Associated Press reported that state highways 16 and 20 in Colusa and Yolo counties were shut down due to mudslides while evacuations were ordered in the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco.
Officials were reportedly concerned that the rain could trigger debris flows in the burn scar area of the CZU Lightning Complex Fire which ignited in August 2020. In addition to being disruptive, the torrential rainfall was nothing short of record-breaking. Downtown San Francisco recorded 4.02 inches of rain, making it the wettest October day on record for the city.
That staggering rainfall total also reached into the top-five wettest days on record in San Francisco, with records going back to the Gold Rush era, the National Weather Service said. Sunday’s total was the fourth-highest ever recorded there. READ MORE
