Big storm dumps 1.53 inches of rain on Fresno. How much more is on the way?
The latest in a series of storms slammed into an already sodden central California on Monday, dropping 1.53 inches of rain on the Fresno area between midnight and 10 p.m.
“It is unusual to get this much rain in such a short period of time,” said Dan Harty, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Hanford. Between this storm and previous rainfall in recent days, much of the central San Joaquin Valley has been saturated to a point where the ground cannot absorb more water.
More rain is on its way, however.
Prior to Monday, rainfall since Jan. 1 at Fresno Yosemite International Airport had amounted to 1.32 inches; through Monday afternoon, the latest storm simply added to that total. The Fresno area received about a quarter inch of rain Sunday night, but most of the moisture – about 1.3 inches – fell after midnight Monday.
The deluge brought with it the prospect of flooded streets, roads and streams throughout the region, Harty said. The weather agency issued a widespread general flood watch for much of the central San Joaquin Valley through late Tuesday night, although the rain was expected to ease up and taper off late Monday afternoon and evening before another storm sweeps across the Valley on Tuesday.
“We’ll see another round on Tuesday, but it won’t be as heavy as this one,” Harty said. The forecast indicates that Tuesday’s storm could bring heavy rain and the possibility of thunderstorms to the area.
Monday’s system was warmer than other recent storms that dumped an abundance of snow on the Sierra Nevada foothills and mountains on the eastern flank of the San Joaquin Valley, driving the snow level up to about 8,000 feet. Below that elevation, rainfall was melting some of the earlier snowfall, adding to the burden of foothill streams carrying not only rainfall but melting snow runoff.
Fresno Bee visual journalist Eric Zamora en route to document flooding and a rockslide on the “four-lane” section of Highway 168 southwest of Shaver Lake in eastern Fresno County on Monday afternoon, encountered rising waters in some of the foothill creeks in the Prather area. “The usually dry creekbeds running through ranchland along Auberry Road are swollen with muddy water like chocolate milk,” Zamora said.
After Tuesday, forecasters expect the region to get a short rainfall respite with dry weather on Wednesday and Thursday. The letup in precipitation could set the stage for dense fog before another storm brings the potential for even more rain on Friday and into the weekend.
‘Atmospheric river events’
The continuation of what NWS forecasters called “the endless onslaught of atmospheric river events” hitting California prompted Fresno city officials to convert four community centers into temporary “storm relief centers” where homeless people could seek refuge from the rain. Those centers opened Monday and will remain open 24 hours a day through Sunday, offering three meals a day as well as cots and blankets.
Law enforcement officials and public works crews across the region were scrambling to keep up with reports of flooded roads. In addition to the Highway 168 rockslide – which happened as California Highway Patrol officers were standing by because of water and mud already flowing across the roadway – dozens of other warnings were issued for localized street flooding and road closures.
Some Fresno television stations were knocked off the air Monday morning by power outages and failed generators at transmitter sites in the mountains east of Fresno, leaving viewers who get their signals through antennas rather than a cable television subscription unable to watch shows on local NBC, CBS and Fox affiliates.
Earlier on Monday, Madera County sheriff’s deputies ordered the evacuation of the Bass Lake RV Resort on Road 274 because of an “immediate threat to life” from flooding in the mountain area.
Within hours, the American Red Cross had established evacuation centers in Oakhurst and Mariposa for people displaced by flooding.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 4:07 PM.
