The weather continues to rage in part of the United States. The West Coast, already recently bereaved by an accumulation of historic storms, is preparing to face new heavy rains this Friday and during the weekend. A series of deluges have battered California in recent weeks, killing 19 people and causing flooding and power outages.
According to forecasters, a first storm should bring significant precipitation from the north of this state to that of Washington and Oregon. 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. “warned the US weather services.
“Northern California has been hit with heavy rain 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, in Washington State.
The wettest two weeks in 150 years in San Francisco
Part of that state is under avalanche warning, with the storm bringing wetter, 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. On the heights of northern California, 1.8 m of snow could fall between this Friday and Tuesday, with gusts of wind 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 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.
Global warming multiplies extreme phenomena
While it is difficult to establish a direct link between these series of storms and climate change, scientists regularly explain that warming increases the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events. However, these torrential rains will not be enough to replenish the water reserves in California. Several winters of above normal precipitation would be needed to compensate for the drought of recent years.
Beyond these bad weather in the western United States, the east of the country was affected by very violent storms Thursday evening. At least seven people were killed when a tornado swept through central Alabama, emergency services said.
The devastating weather phenomenon then continued its path in the neighboring state of Georgia.