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friendly_iconoclast

(15,333 posts)
Sun Dec 23, 2012, 03:12 AM Dec 2012

California Megaflood: Lessons from A Forgotten Catastrophe

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=atmospheric-rivers-california-megaflood-lessons-from-forgotten-catastrophe

A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six months, and it could happen again

By B. Lynn Ingram

Geologic evidence shows that truly massive floods, caused by rainfall alone, have occurred in California every 100 to 200 years. Such floods are likely caused by atmospheric rivers: narrow bands of water vapor about a mile above the ocean that extend for thousands of kilometers.

The atmospheric river storms featured in a January 2013 article in Scientific American that I co-wrote with Michael Dettinger, The Coming Megafloods, are responsible for most of the largest historical floods in many western states. The only megaflood to strike the American West in recent history occurred during the winter of 1861-62. California bore the brunt of the damage. This disaster turned enormous regions of the state into inland seas for months, and took thousands of human lives. The costs were devastating: one quarter of California’s economy was destroyed, forcing the state into bankruptcy.

Today, the same regions that were submerged in 1861-62 are home to California’s fastest-growing cities. Although this flood is all but forgotten, important lessons from this catastrophe can be learned. Much of the insight can be gleaned from harrowing accounts in diary entries, letters and newspaper articles, as well as the book Up and Down California in 1860-1864, written by William Brewer, who surveyed the new state’s natural resources with state geologist Josiah Whitney.

In 1861, farmers and ranchers were praying for rain after two exceptionally dry decades. In December their prayers were answered with a vengeance, as a series of monstrous Pacific storms slammed—one after another—into the West coast of North America, from Mexico to Canada. The storms produced the most violent flooding residents had ever seen, before or since....
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California Megaflood: Lessons from A Forgotten Catastrophe (Original Post) friendly_iconoclast Dec 2012 OP
If that happens sakabatou Dec 2012 #1
I wonder if climate change makes that happeneing again more or less likely? Exen Trik Dec 2012 #2
Don't worry OnlinePoker Dec 2012 #3
Up and Down California in 1860-1864 is a great book. raouldukelives Dec 2012 #4

Exen Trik

(103 posts)
2. I wonder if climate change makes that happeneing again more or less likely?
Sun Dec 23, 2012, 06:56 PM
Dec 2012

I doubt we can even know that unless it happens - which is a problem in its own right.

OnlinePoker

(5,702 posts)
3. Don't worry
Sun Dec 23, 2012, 08:48 PM
Dec 2012

It doesn't matter if it's a natural event that has occurred in the past...it will automatically be blamed on climate change.

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