Flooding, Mudslides, and Sinkholes

[canyonwalker]

Two weeks of heavy rainfall in California is taking a toll. While the rain is much needed after several years of drought, we're getting more of it than the land can handle. Rivers are overflowing, drains are flooding, hills are giving way to mudslides, and sinkholes are opening up beneath roads and homes.

Folks outside California might be wondering where this is all coming from. Like, where's the hurricane level storm that's causing all this? The thing is, there's no "Once In A Century" storm here. What we've gotten is a rapid sequence of typical to heavy rains. Individually they would cause few problems, but their cumulative effect is severe. That's why you see pictures in the news the past few days of flooded neighborhoods, mudslides, sinkholes, etc. We've reached the point of saturation, and now things are starting to give way.

Update: While we're getting a respite from the rain today (it's warm and partly sunny!) the weather forecast shows rain 5 out of the next 6 days. The impacts of heavy rain could be much worse a week from now.

Comments

[kjn]

There is also the thing that severely dry land looses its ability to absorb and hold water, and also is easily flushed away. Part of it is the lack of vegetation, but I believe it's a similar effect to that a very dry sponge has a harder time mopping up water than a slightly moist one as well.

[canyonwalker]

You are correct, dry/scorched land is less able to absorb water. Dead and destroyed vegetation makes it even worse. Those have been big factors in past years but are only a small factor right now. We did get near average rainfall last year, and thankfully the fire season was mild.