After a quick rain break, another atmospheric river is headed toward Fresno. Here’s when
After a weekend of flash floods, tornado warnings and emergency rescues, things have quieted down some and the central San Joaquin Valley experienced a break in widespread rainfall.
It will be short-lived.
The National Weather Service says another atmospheric river is moving into the area. We’ll feel the bulk of the storm throughout Tuesday (1 a.m. to 11 p.m.), but there will be rain before and after.
“This continued precipitation will exacerbate high flows that rivers and streams are already experiencing, and will create additional flooding concerns for areas along these rivers and streams and in low lying areas,” the weather service wrote in its forecast discussion on Monday.
A flood watch is in place until 10 a.m. Wednesday.
There will be another break on Thursday and Friday, but another storm is expected by the weekend, the weather service said.
Road closures, power outages
CalTrans is reporting several road closures, including one of the northbound lanes of Highway 99 at Avenue 24 near Earlimart. This area had been fully closed over the weekend.
Highway 137 east of Tulare is closed from Road 152 to Farmersville Road due to flooding. There is no estimated time for reopening.
In Fresno, the southbound on-ramp to Highway 41 remains closed at Shaw Avenue.
PG&E is reporting multiple small outages (less than 500 customers) across the region through its online outage map. This includes in an area south of Fresno near Raisin City and several west of Selma between Highway 99 and 41. In Fresno, there is an outage reported near Cedar and Ventura avenues. Power isn’t expected to be restored until Monday evening.
Funnel cloud sighting
A severe thunderstorm warning was issued for Merced, Madera and Fresno counties near Dos Palos and Los Banos on Sunday. A storm cell that tracked through the southeast portion of Merced County produced up to 1 inch of rain reported in the Los Banos area, according to meteorologist Jim Brusda with the weather service.
Brusda said dime-sized hail was reported in Dos Palos and a funnel cloud was reported about one mile east of Dos Palos. A funnel cloud was also detected near Firebaugh. An EF-1 tornado which produced winds of up to 90 mph touched down in Tuolumne County on Saturday about six miles southwest of Tuttletown. According to Brusda, there were no reports of tornadoes in Merced County on Sunday.
Flood stages expected this week
Merced saw about one-quarter to half an inch of rain on Sunday with the Stevinson area recording about .48 inches of rain. According to Brusda, the Merced River was recorded to be at about 70 feet in Stevinson Monday morning and is forecast to rise above 72 feet Tuesday evening into Wednesday morning. Flood stage is 71 feet.
On Monday morning, Bear Creek was recorded to be at 13.5 feet and is forecast to rise just above the flood stage of 23 feet late Tuesday and into Wednesday morning, according to forecasters.
Mariposa shelter in place
According to the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office, a shelter in place order was issued for the Foresta area on Saturday with access to the area compromised. According to sheriff’s office spokesperson Kristie Mitchell, the order was lifted Monday morning. Mitchell said the order was prompted due to a mudslide and rockslide in the park as well a mudslide and washout on Highway 120. Caltrans has since established a one-way traffic control on Highway 120, according to Mitchell.
A shelter in place order was also issued for the area of Triangle Park Road and the nearby neighborhoods due to a bridge culvert failure along a road which is not maintained by the county, according to Mitchell. That order was expected to be lifted Monday.
This story was originally published March 13, 2023 at 9:55 AM.