![]() ![]() Now that Earth has warmed 1 degree Celsius above preindustrial levels, the odds are elevated that when factors known to produce intense storms do align, their effects will be even more extreme, Diffenbaugh said. “All the right ingredients came together,” he said. He attributed the storm to a combination of monsoonal moisture and an inverted trough moving across the Southwest that provided energy. ![]() “But just having it be so widespread and having so much volume of rain is certainly a pretty big deal for us.” More rain fell in this one storm than during any August in recorded park history, she added.Īlthough the rainfall was greater than normal, such storms aren’t atypical for Death Valley at this time of year, when monsoons often bring moisture from Mexico, Planz said. So that itself wasn’t a surprise,” Jurado said. “It seems like every time we get rain here in Death Valley, it makes the rocks move. Scotty’s Castle, a Spanish-style mansion that offered guided tours, was severely damaged and has been closed to the public ever since. Summer storms in Death Valley are usually more localized, closing a road or two and maybe causing an alluvial fan to flash flood, Jurado said, calling Friday’s downpour “exceptionally rare.” The last time the park saw rain this widespread was in 2015, when a powerful weather system dropped nearly 3 inches of rain in five hours, triggering a 1,000-year flood event that battered historic structures. Why was the Oak fire so much more destructive than the Washburn fire? Experts say it’s because of weather, terrain and forest management. “Sometimes the debris is light, only a couple of inches deep, and in other areas it’s feet deep.”Ĭalifornia Two California fires in the Sierra Nevada have very different outcomes. “You can just make a blanket statement that every roadway known in the park has debris washed over it,” Jurado said. No injuries had been reported, but some roads sustained extensive damage. Navy and California Highway Patrol helicopters were conducting aerial searches to make sure there were no more stranded vehicles. Law enforcement escorts helped them avoid multiple places where the pavement was undercut, with asphalt hanging over unsupported areas at risk of collapsing, she said. You could get clear of one area and another wash would be running and you would have to wait 15 minutes,” he said.īy Saturday afternoon, most visitors had been able to leave the park, said incident information specialist Jennette Jurado of the National Park Service. ![]() “Different areas of the park flooded at different times. ![]() At times, he had to use flat rocks to build bridges over washed-out sections of the road, he said, and estimated the 35-mile trip ended up taking about six or seven hours. “I knew from experiencing past monsoon-type floods that stuff can get crazy in a hurry, so I made the decision to get to higher ground,” he said.Īfter sunrise, he began driving toward the eastern entrance to the park, stopping as he went to move boulders and branches out of the road. Traveling with his corgi, Aspen, he drove to Badwater Road near Highway 190 and waited it out in his car there. “We went from having a little bit of water running through the dips and washes, water a couple of inches deep, to suddenly you could hear the sound of rocks and boulders.” “It’s going to be a little more widespread and some areas will get more wind that they normally do.“Where it really got crazy was between 4 and 4:30,” Sirlin said. “This one is going to be a little stronger than our regular Santa Ana winds,” said meteorologist Mike Wofford with the National Weather Service, Los Angeles office. Coastal Orange County will see gusts reach 45 mph and the San Diego mountains and valleys will see gusts of up to 55 mph, said the weather service. In the higher canyons and the western portion of the San Gabriel Mountains, isolated wind gusts could reach up to 80 mph, officials said. The strong winds bring the potential for fires, downed trees, powerlines and other debris. in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties. on Saturday in both counties and up until 6 p.m. A high wind warning will remain in effect until 3 p.m. on Friday, according to the National Weather Service. The high winds are due in Los Angeles and Ventura counties starting around 3 p.m. Santa Ana winds with gusts between 50 and 70 mph will whip through Southern California starting Friday afternoon and peak overnight across most of the region, but a wet winter has dampened the risk for potential wildfires. ![]()
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