The next round of heavy rain has moved into Northern California and will continue during the day on Sunday, but the FOX Forecast Center is tracking another series of atmospheric river storms that will bring several more inches of rain and damaging wind to the Golden State this week.
This comes after a deadly bomb cyclone produced flooding rain, debris flows, damaging winds and large waves in the region last week.
The bomb cyclone was blamed for at least two deaths in the San Francisco Bay area. One of those deaths, according to officials, was a child who was killed Wednesday night inside a home that was hit by a falling tree in the Sonoma County town of Occidental. In Fairfield, which is about 65 miles to the east, a 19-year-old woman was killed when her car hydroplaned on a partially flooded road and crashed into a utility pole.
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Heavy rain and strong winds moved into northern California and southern Oregon over the weekend and will continue through the day on Sunday.
The FOX Forecast Center says the rainfall could be hazardous and will lead to some flash flooding over the coastal ranges of northern California.
Between 3-6 inches of rain is possible during the day, with some locally higher amounts. That could increase the risk of flooding in an area that has already seen copious amounts of rain since the beginning of the year.
In addition to the heavy rain, more heavy snow is also expected in the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada.
This storm will wind down during the day on Sunday, but the next atmospheric river storm will move into the area and bring an even greater risk of flooding at the beginning of the week.
Another impactful atmospheric river storm will affect California starting late Sunday night and early Monday morning. But unlike this weekend’s storm, which has been impacting northern and central areas of the Golden State, this one will affect nearly the entire state.
Heavy rain will bring a significant threat of flooding from the California-Oregon border southward into the Los Angeles Basin.
According to the FOX Forecast Center, the flooding threat from this storm will be far more serious than that seen from the previous storm.
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And because of the already saturated soils from the previous storms, streams will likely flood quickly. According to the FOX Forecast Center, all of that water will eventually make its way into the larger rivers, leading to a high chance of widespread flooding across the northern half of the state.
Several areas of the state, from the California-Oregon border south through the San Francisco Bay area and into Southern California, will likely see several inches of rain this week.
In all, 4-7 inches of rain could fall across the lower elevations in northern California. But along the Coastal Ranges and the Sierra Nevada foothills, as much as 10-15 inches of rain could fall.
And the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada are expected to pick up several feet of snow from these storms.
The higher elevations could see anywhere from 2-10 feet of snow.
In Southern California, rainfall totals over the next 7 days could be between 1-4 inches in the lower elevations up to as much as 8 inches in the mountains surrounding the LA Basin.