Severe storms pummeled California with hailstones the size of quarters and devastating floods which saw 10,000 people evacuated from their homes on Saturday - as a rare tornado warning was issued for Fresno County.
Funnel clouds were spotted in the heart of California's Gold Rush on Saturday afternoon and the weather service issued a tornado warning for the Sierra Nevada foothills as severe thunderstorms, hail and high winds blanketed the region.
A set of tornado warnings were briefly issued in Fresno County, nearly 100 miles south of Gold Country, as California continues to be drenched by storms.
Multiple people in the Fresno area posted photos of themselves holding hailstones the size of quarters, with a couple using the hashtag 'What the hail?!'.
Flash flooding warnings were in effect late Saturday in Tuolumne County, with roads submerged around Sonora and neighboring communities.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the hail or the tornado threats Saturday.
This week's storm marked the state's 10th atmospheric river of the winter, storms that have brought enormous amounts of rain and snow to the state and helped lessen the drought conditions that had dragged on for three years.
State reservoirs that had dipped to strikingly low levels are now well above the average for this time of year, prompting state officials to release water from dams to assist with flood control and make room for even more rain.
Across the state on Saturday, Californians contended with drenching rains and rising water levels in the atmospheric river's aftermath.
Across the Central Coast's Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly 1,700 residents - many of them Latino farmworkers - from the unincorporated community of Pajaro.
Officials said the Pajaro River's levee breach is about 100 feet wide. Crews had gone door to door Friday afternoon to urge residents to leave before the rains came but some stayed and had to be pulled from floodwaters early Saturday.
1 comment:
Maskless Gavin Newsom will munch his last meal at the French Laundry this week, declare a bank holiday closing all Golden State banks then fly off to Timbuktu enjoying Vache Qui Rie soaked down with a glass of Plavac mali wine. Skoal Gov!
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