San Diego’s dangerous flash flood on Monday may not be the state’s last such event of the next couple of weeks, as a weather pattern favorable to atmospheric rivers takes shape across the Pacific Ocean.
Why it matters: Atmospheric rivers are responsible for the majority of the Golden State’s precipitation, and are associated with some of its worst floods on record.
Zoom in: On Monday, a relatively weak atmospheric river, along with favorable winds in the mid-to-upper atmosphere, combined to deliver a deluge to San Diego, with the city seeing 2.73 inches of rainfall.
This ranked as its fourth-wettest day on record, as well as the wettest January day.
Most of the rain there fell in just a three-hour period and focused on downtown San Diego, a region with poor stormwater runoff issues. This led to severe flooding and more than two-dozen water rescues, as Axios’ Andrew Keatts reports.
