A high-end EF1 tornado struck Montebello on March 22, damaging 17 structures were damaged, 11 of which sustained significant damage, damaging or flipping vehicles, and snapping trees and power poles. A waterspout moved ashore as an EF0 tornado in Carpintera on March 21, inflicting minor damage to trees as well as about 25 homes in mobile home park and injuring one person. In Los Angeles, Union Station's main concourse flooded. The SoFi Stadium, which hosted the 2023 College Football Playoff National Championship, experienced rain. Multiple highways, including I-5, SR 126, and US 101, were closed, and a sinkhole that swallowed two cars opened up near Chatsworth. Southern California Įvacuations were issued in January for Ventura County and Santa Barbara counties, including Montecito (which had experienced the deadly 2018 mudflows). The Sacramento Zoo closed on January 10 due to storm damage. A total of five people died from the December-January storms in Sacramento County, making it the hardest-hit county in the state. Two people were killed when trees fell on them due to the high winds. On January 14, a brief EF0 tornado near Clay damaged the roofs of two garages and uplifted a wall-less RV structure, which caused it to collapse. On January 10, a brief EF1 tornado caused extensive damage to softwood and hardwood trees northeast of Milton. Wind gusts of over 60 miles per hour (97 km/h) knocked down trees and caused widespread power outages that affected over 500,000 SMUD and PG&E customers. The levee failures were traced to a private property. Three people were killed from flooding on the roads. Several people were trapped in their cars and had to be rescued. San Francisco Bay Area Ī flooded walnut orchard near the Sacramento River in Butte County on January 8Ī levee along the Cosumnes River broke in January, resulting in the SR 99 being flooded. Dozens of Amtrak trains were delayed, ran on modified schedules, or cancelled entirely due to the floods as well. Over 40 state parks in California were completely closed in January, and one national park was also closed, Redwood National Park. The storms causing the 2022–2023 California floods reached Nevada, Arizona, and Utah. Biden surveyed the damage with Newsom on January 19. Later, Ventura County was approved disaster relief. Monterey, San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties were added a few days later to the declaration. ![]() Biden approved a major disaster declaration for Santa Cruz, Sacramento and Merced counties on January 14. That same day, two lawmakers sent a letter urging President Biden to declare a state of emergency for San Luis Obispo County and Santa Barbara County. President Joe Biden then declared a state of emergency in 17 California counties on January 9, 2023. ĭue to the storms, Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency on January 4, 2023. Before the rains started, California had been in an extreme drought. It has been both predicted by scientists and observed in the last years and documented by the IPCC (International Panel for Climate Change 6th assessment report). This brings more intense rainfall and associated flooding, as well as more intense drought in many regions. Climate change is intensifying the water cycle. Scientist Kevin Trenberth declared that "the interaction between the warming ocean and the overlying atmosphere (.) is producing these prodigious rainfalls that have occurred in so many places around the world recently". Other scientists have emphasized that floods were caused by ocean warming, directly related to climate change. Scientists interviewed by Los Angeles Times said that further study is needed to determine the connection and California has recorded similar events almost every decade since records started in the 19th century. The floods were widely reported by media as an example of how climate change is increasing extreme changes in weather, especially cycles of precipitation and drought. At least 200,000 homes and business lost power during the December-January storms and 6,000 individuals were ordered to evacuate. The flooding resulted in property damage and at least 22 fatalities. Periods of heavy rainfall caused by multiple atmospheric rivers in California between Decemand Maresulted in floods that affected parts of Southern California, the California Central Coast, Northern California and Nevada.
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