California facing flooding and mudslide threat

AccuWeather

AccuWeather's Ken Clark warns of heavy rainfall starting in Northern California before spreading south. Heavy rain over the burn scars from last month's fires could lead to mudslides and flooding.

Transcript

00:00Joining right now Accuweather California expert meteorologist Ken Clark who's been with Accuweather

00:05over four decades and a resident of Rancho Cucamonga and you know Ken this storm is unlike

00:14any other storm I think that we've seen in in California this year in that it's going to bring

00:19rain to central and northern California but the heaviest rain for once is going to be in southern

00:25California. Right all winter the atmospheric rivers have always been aimed at the northern

00:30third or northern half of the state and we haven't had a lot of rain in southern California

00:35even with the last week's storm it still ended up being not a great event but certainly it helped.

00:41This is different the some of the highest rainfall totals will be in central and southern California

00:47like the southern coastal range of mountains down into southern California. San Diego less

00:54than half an inch of rain so far this winter they're going to easily have the biggest storm

00:59all winter long. All right John all right Mr. Ken let's take a look at the future radar here it all

01:04begins in northern California later on today I'm going to play through this and I want you to

01:09describe what you're seeing as this storm works its way south we begin at six o'clock tonight.

01:16Off and on light rain will continue across central and southern California won't be continuous but

01:21it'll be off and on heavier rain spread into northern California during the overnight hours

01:25tonight and that heavy rain will gradually spread its way southward during the day tomorrow probably

01:31the heaviest rain will be ahead of the cold front that arrives tomorrow afternoon in in San Francisco

01:36on the central coast tomorrow late in the day and in the evening hours in southern California

01:41there can be thunderstorms with the cold front there can be thunderstorms behind the cold front

01:46in the bay area as cold air a lot moves in a lot going on here and all said and done we're talking

01:52a lot of rain and very impactful rain. All right let's take a look at the amounts Ken you and I

01:58were just talking about this I mean this looks like a solid two to four inches of rain from

02:03well just south of the bay area through through most of southern California you know even San

02:10Diego looks like a solid inch inch and a half maybe two inches. Yeah I think one to two inches

02:15very likely in San Diego these rainfall amounts have been seen since last March 10 months ago

02:21so this is how big this event is and of course all eyes are on the burn areas and I got to stress

02:26there those areas are very susceptible to orographic lifting of the these kind of storms

02:33or bringing more rain than let's say right along the immediate coast and we could be seeing some

02:38rain amounts in the mountains five to eight inches before it's all said and done. I think there's

02:43going to be some serious serious problems here in the burn areas with mudslides debris flows

02:50as a very dangerous situation setting up for those people. And you know Ken that's the short-term pain

02:55and there's going to be a lot of pain with this but you know what in California when it rains it

02:59usually pours there is some long-term gain though because of course we have the short-term drought

03:06across southern California and then let's talk about the importance of the snow that's going to

03:11be falling in the Sierra. Oh my there's gonna be a lot of snow in the Sierra above 6,000 feet we're

03:17talking numerous feet of snow maybe five six seven feet of snow at ski level resort level

03:24and through the central and southern Sierra again southern Sierra has not had a really big storm this

03:30winter this will be the first really big storm and this will be blizzard conditions as well

03:35some wind gusts 50 to 70 miles per hour and some of the mountaintops with the storm moving in.

03:41AccuWeather California expert Ken Clark 40 years of experience nobody knows California better than

03:47Ken. I had my umbrella out too for today. Buckle down and stay safe here over the next couple of days.

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