A “truly brutal storm” will strike the US tonight, causing flooding, landslides and “likely” deaths. As the US continues to battle with its winter weather patterns, a bomb cyclone will make landfall on Wednesday, lasting through to Thursday.
According to the National Weather Service, the storm could drop as much as eight inches of rain in some areas, falling on already overflowing rivers and saturated ground.
“The impacts will include widespread flooding, roads washing out, hillside collapsing, trees down (potentially full groves), widespread power outages, immediate disruption to commerce, and the worst of all, likely loss of human life,” the weather service warned in a statement.
“This is truly a brutal system that we are looking at and needs to be taken seriously.”
The storm will strike in California, where it faces a second atmospheric river within a week.
High wind warnings will be in effect for the San Francisco Bay Area and California’s central coast from 4am on Wednesday until 10am on Thursday.
The storm could impact a broad swathe of coastal California and reach as far south as Los Angeles and well past San Francisco to the north, Daniel Swain, climate scientist at the University of California, said in a news conference Tuesday.
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The worst will be felt in the northern part of the state where, because the ground is already saturated due to the New Year’s Eve storm, Wednesday’s downpour could result in localised mudslides from Monterey Bay up the coast, he said.
There’s a high risk of flash floods, urban flooding, shallow landslides and mudslides, though major river flooding is unlikely, Mr Swain added.
He then said that “the big wild card is what happens next week,” warning that one and possibly two more atmospheric river events target the coast in the coming days.
“Then all bets are off and the potential for much more significant flooding could very realistically emerge”, he warned.
Ahead of the storm, San Francisco has distributed more than 8,000 sandbags since Saturday – and is now nearly running out.
“Please save sandbags for people who need them,” San Francisco Public Works tweeted.
“Those whose properties are prone to flooding.”
In San Jose, the city manager signed a proclamation of local emergency and evacuation order Tuesday night amid a flood watch.
The city’s emergency management and police plan to deploy loudspeaker announcements to evacuate unhoused residents from waterways, according to a statement.
