California braces for flooding, snowmelt from a warm atmospheric river set to slam state

Another atmospheric river system has set its sights on California, raising considerable concern about flooding and structural damage as warm rain is expected to fall atop the state’s near-record snowpack this week, forecasters say.

“It now appears increasingly likely that a potentially significant and very likely warm atmospheric river event will probably affect some portion of Northern or Central California sometime between about late Thursday and Saturday,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said during a briefing Monday.

Last week, the odds of such a system developing were about 20%. By Monday, the chances had increased to “7 or 8 out of 10, if not higher, for a warm atmospheric river event of some magnitude,” Swain said. At least one more storm could follow this month.

As of today, Dallas Raines said the bigger impact will be in Central and Northern parts of the state. Again, this is as of today, so it could be upgraded in severity by tomorrow.

Too bad it’s not a cold one with more snow. RIP snow season.