In the days leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday, the western U.S. could enduring a stretch of stormy weather with rain and snow. This could lead to localized flooding and travel disruptions.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00When you see what has happened in Northern California, Ken, especially this week, I mean,
00:07this has been a lot of rain, and it's a little early in the season to be getting this much rain,
00:12correct? Well, I wouldn't call this rare. It certainly is unusual to have this kind of storm,
00:18this strong of a storm, and this strong of an atmospheric river for November. It's unusual,
00:24certainly, and rainfall tones have shown that across Northern California. As you can see,
00:29quite a bit of rain across Northern California. Santa Rosa has had over 10 inches of rain. By the
00:34way, Santa Rosa had over 600 percent, six times the normal precipitation to date in November.
00:41Yeah, we're talking about the atmospheric rivers, Ken, and we see these a lot in California. You
00:45can clearly see it. What's a little unusual about this pattern, we've been tracking these two storms
00:52kind of dancing around each other over the last couple of days, but, I mean, you can clearly see
00:58that concentrated band of moisture extending from the Pacific all the way up into the Northwest.
01:06That storm, dual storms off the Northwest Coast, they're going to kind of stay in place for the
01:10next few days and keep the moisture coming to California. The band of heavy rain right now
01:15across Northern California is going to spread slowly southward this afternoon, get into the
01:20major part of the Bay Area and on the North Central Coast as we go through the afternoon.
01:25Like you said, some major problems with that. Also, it's very windy right now ahead of that
01:28front, and that's going to cause some problems too. Maybe some downed trees and power lines
01:33because of the wind and the saturated ground. Ken, I'm seeing a lot of snow lowering. We've
01:37already had, I believe, Soda Springs had almost two feet of snow in the last 24 hours, and
01:42additional snow is on the way. Explain to the viewers how important it is pertaining to the
01:49drought and pertaining to California, how important it is to get this snow going in the Sierra.
01:59The snow that falls in the wintertime is the lifeblood of the reservoirs throughout the rest
02:04of the year. This is where most of the water goes into the reservoirs comes from. The snow melt as
02:10we go through the late spring and summer months. So how much snow falls in the wintertime,
02:14extremely important to how the reservoirs do in the entire year. So this is a great start for the
02:20winter season so far. And Ken, we do have another storm on the way. Now, this doesn't look as wet,
02:25certainly, as what we've seen in Northern California, but there's at least going to be a
02:30little rain here somewhere. It should be under a quarter inch in Southern California, Ken, during
02:36the day Monday. Yeah, the models have been basically backing off on how much rain falls in
02:41Southern California. I think there's going to be a little bit of light rain for tomorrow.
02:45They get into parts of Southern California, especially the L.A. region. More important
02:49rain probably Monday into Tuesday. But again, I don't think we're expecting heavy rain in Southern
02:53California, which is good because of the mountain fire burn area. So maybe we're not going to see
02:59any really bad rains in that far south. You know, Ken, we made the announcement that we did not
03:05believe there would be any drought in California into the winter of 2026. So through 2025,
03:13you know, where are we right now with the reservoirs in California? And can you speak to
03:20some of the more important reservoirs where they're at? Shasta and Oroville are probably the
03:26two biggest importance of the way reservoirs in California, all the reservoirs across California
03:32right now are either at or above 100% of what historical averages are. Excellent shape as we
03:39go into the winter. And now we're going to add more precipitation, hopefully, as we go through
03:43the rest of the winter to get us right on through this coming next summer in 2025. Yeah. And then
03:49again, Ken, as we continue to look this week, we kind of figured out we kind of have a year's worth
03:54of reserve. And every year we get normal rainfall, we could push back that drought another year,
04:00correct? That's correct. So right now we're looking at it pretty golden as we go through
04:06this coming year for the Golden State. So we'll hopefully add some more on maybe push back any
04:12future drought another year. It's a nice little stretch we're in. And of course, we'll be meeting
04:17with our long range team. And Ken, we're going to be talking about the upcoming winter in California
04:22in the next week to 10 days. Expert meteorologist Ken Clark from Rancho Cucamonga. I just like
04:29saying that in California. Guess what? Nobody knows California weather better than Ken. Not
04:35even me. And Ernie. Always good to talk to you, Ken. I appreciate that. Have a good Thanksgiving.