The sun beamed through a cloudless sky across parts of California on Thursday, offering a much-needed break from relentless rains that have drenched the state for weeks. The window of good weather wouldn’t last long. The 12th atmospheric river in mere months is expected to unleash a new set of hazards across the sodden state early next week.
“[The storm] is going to exacerbate things further with the flooding and the other impacts going on unfortunately,” said Jon Gottschalck, who heads the operational prediction branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (Noaa) climate prediction center, noting that more heavy rainfall and higher elevation snowfall is in the forecast. “It is also going to hamper ongoing relief efforts.”
