Weather of Arabia - The US state of California faced a series of deadly storms that caused floods, cut off electricity for thousands, flooded roads, toppled trees and unleashed debris flows and landslides, and at least 20 people were killed, and a 5-year-old child is still missing, After being swept out of his mother's car by flood waters in San Luis Obispo County.
This series of major winter storms that began on December 26 and lasted for nearly three weeks, the most recent of which was the ninth storm that hit on Monday (16-1), brought a huge amount of rain water estimated at no less than 24.5 trillion gallons of water in 16 days, According to calculations by Colin McCarthy, an atmospheric sciences student at UCLA.
McCarthy used data from the National Weather Forecasting Center, which estimated that the entire state received an average of 8.61 inches of water during that period, and one inch of rain per acre equals about 27,154 gallons of water. This conclusion.
24,500,000,000,000 gallons of water have fallen across California over the last 16 days.
That's 24.5 trillion gallons.
Major drought relief. pic.twitter.com/rW7zxLfQkr
— Colin McCarthy (@US_Stormwatch) January 12, 2023
The storm fronts that hit California over the past few days were driven by multiple atmospheric rivers, and atmospheric rivers are passages in the atmosphere that transport a large amount of moisture from over the seas. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, these weather events carry a quantity of vapor Water is roughly equal to the average amount of water that flows at the mouth of the Mississippi River, so when it reaches land, it releases this vapor in the form of heavy precipitation of snow or rain.
These multiple atmospheric rivers mainly flooded the California coast, and several areas experienced record precipitation. San Francisco, for example, ushered in the New Year with 139 mm of precipitation in the 24 hours on December 31, marking the second-highest daily precipitation in more than 170 years, and equaling nearly 47% of the precipitation for the entire month of December.
At the same time, Auckland experienced its highest daily precipitation on record since 1970, with 120 mm of rain recorded on December 31, the Met Service said.
The Meteorological Service expects the rains to continue for at least another week, until around January 19, with precipitation expected to decrease after that and until January 26 to become less than usual.
Although the heavy rains caused destruction and death, they came at an important time to relieve the severe drought that had plagued the state for several months. About 95% of California is now in the "moderately dry" category, meaning that the growth of grasslands, landscaping and gardens is stunted. It needs early watering, and the water levels in ponds and streams are lower than normal.
According to Sarah Rogowski, of the National Weather Service's Regional Operations Center, although there has been some improvement, long-term drought remains a persistent problem.
"The deficit in water storage reservoirs and dams, the deep decline in soil moisture, and the significant groundwater depletion that has accumulated over several months to years will require additional rainfall to overcome," she said. She added, "It took years to get into this drought, and it will likely take years to fully recover."
Meteorologists have been watching a storm forming in the Pacific Ocean to see if it gains enough strength to become the 10th storm to hit the state this season. Either way, it will likely bring only light rain and will be mostly limited to Northern California when it makes landfall on Wednesday, state climatologist Dr. Mike Anderson said Monday during the state's weather briefing.
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