Flood watches for Northern Californa in effect as another atmospheric river of rain approaches

[Auggie]

A fierce winter storm packed with subtropical moisture is moving through Northern California Monday morning (Feb 25th) and forecast to arrive in the central Bay Area Monday afternoon and stick around until Wednesday.

The so-called atmospheric river is expected to deliver the biggest soaking to the North Bay, and before sunrise drops were already falling in Napa and Sonoma counties. The Santa Cruz mountains could also receive a drenching.

SNIP

Meteorologists say the storm appears moderate in strength, but it's slow-moving and the steady rainfall across three days could amount to significant totals.

The NWS forecasts 6 to 12 inches in coastal ranges and North Bay locations, four to six inches in areas along the coast and the Bay shoreline, and .25 to 1.5 inches in most other locations.

MORE: https://www.sfgate.com/weather/article/atmospheric-river-San-Francisco-Bay-Area-weather-13642382.php?ipid=newsrecirc

[cilla4progress]

1. Boy, after the devastating fires

This can't be good?

[Mr.Bill]

8. Fire bad.

Water not as bad.

[SHRED]

2. We are having such intense weather

Seems like over the entire state.

I'm happy for the snowfall. We need it.

[Auggie]

3. Yes ...

wish we could capture more of it though. There's been talk and/or legislation of increasing reservoir capacity but as far as I know not much has been done yet. Correct me if I'm wrong anyone.

[SHRED]

4. Reservoirs are tricky

Dams create negative impacts downstream.

I think much better investments would be in water conservation techniques including reclaiming some of the millions of gallons lost per hour via our wastewater systems. Stormwater should flow free but wastewater should be reclaimed and reused instead of piped out to sea.

[msongs]

6. much of it could be channeled to flood low lying parts of the central valley and create a lake

where water would soak into the ground and raise the water table

[Auggie]

7. Whatever works -- just do it!!!

We could be in drought conditions two years from now.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. Californians also need to learn more about

the greatest disaster no one knows about, the flooding of the Central Valley in 1862. It came about from a storm system similar to the one currently approaching that state, and was devastating. Back then only about 400,000 people lived in California, so as terrible as it was not many people were affected. Different story today.

Here's a link to the Wikipedia article. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Flood_of_1862

Someone probably ought to write a book about it.

Oh, and here's the most important thing to know. For a long time experts had thought the 1862 rains and subsequent flooding were perhaps a thousand year event. More recently they've realized that, even without global warming and the extra moisture that brings, this is probably more like a 150-200 year event.

[Brother Buzz]

10. And followed by the the Great Drought of 1862-65 that wiped out California's cattle industry

Southern California was hit extraordinarily hard, and many landed Californios lost everything. California didn't become the land of milk and honey until we built the reservoirs and levies to smooth out the extremes.

https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:RtC2R40w6W8J:https://ocweekly.com/orange-countys-great-drought-of-1864-6464949/+&cd=10&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

[Brother Buzz]

9. Lower stretches of Russian River have reached flood stage of 32.04 feet.

It's expected to crest tomorrow night at 46.1 feet.

A pain in the ass, for sure, but nothing unusual for the long time residents.

[Auggie]

11. Napa River too

[Brother Buzz]

12. Sacramento River was rising fast and threatening the I street bridge....

Then they open the weir; ducks love it when the Yolo Bypass is running.

Oh, Lake Berryessa's gloryhole overflowed yesterday - Lake Berryessa is FUll and all the rich ass conservative farmers below the dam are dancing.

[Brother Buzz]

13. It's looking like you mostly dodged the bullet with the Napa River flooding

[Auggie]

14. Thanks to a multi-million dollar flood control project ...

several years in the making. Tax dollars at work!!!

[Brother Buzz]

15. I assume the project was started after 1986

Boy howdy, I remember the Napa River flood of 1986!

I visited after the flood and found the biggest wine bottle I'd have ever seen in a debris pile. It was the Methuselah, a 6.0 L Imperial. It was so big it didn't even fit into my corker. I filled it with a second pick Carneros Pinot Noir and had to cork it by hand. It was consumed at a Pinot party where it was well received.

[Auggie]

17. Cool!

Great story.

I think construction of the by-pass began in the early 00's. It was a big project that included not just a by-pass channel but the replacement of several bridges, significant widening of a feeder stream, and lots of river dredging.

[PufPuf23]

16. Here is link to live California river flow map.

https://www.cnrfc.noaa.gov/