Due to the present storm, tens of thousands of people in California are without electricity

Weary of the storms, tens of thousands of Californians were told to leave their homes on Wednesday. The latest storm, which brought wind-blown rain and snow, threatened to bring further flooding to the rain-soaked state.

The “atmospheric river” storm may dump more than an inch (3 cm) of rain in parts of Southern and Central California, hammered by storms since late December.

Strong wind warnings and advisories were in effect from the Mexican border to Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, with gusts of up to 60 miles per hour (97 kilometers per hour) forecast in certain regions.

Because of the steady rain and snow melt, the National Weather Service issued flood warnings and advisories for the majority of the region as well as areas of Arizona and Nevada on Wednesday.

Hanford, California, meteorologist Bill South with the National Weather Service said rain today would add to the already begun flooding.

14,000 people statewide were ordered to evacuate due to the storm

According to Diana Crofts-Pelayo, a spokesperson for the California Office of Emergency Services, more than 14,000 people statewide have been told to evacuate to higher ground due to flooding, with another 47,000 houses under evacuation orders.

According to Crofts-Pelayo, most evacuation orders, covering around 12,000 people, were issued in Tulare County, a flood-stricken region in the San Joaquin Valley where excessive water from prior levee breaches inundated many settlements.

PowerOutage.us, which tracks utility outages, said that as of early Wednesday morning, more than 100,000 Central California households and businesses were without electricity due to downed power lines and trees.

“The system exceeded all expectations,” Pacific Gas and Electric wrote on their website, adding that gusts of up to 89 mph were reported in Santa Clara County.

The storm was also dumping a lot of snow at higher elevations. The weather service anticipated total snow accumulations of up to 4 feet (1.22 m) and locally up to 5 feet.

Human-caused climate change

Since December, the storm has become the 12th so-called atmospheric river to batter the United States, West Coast. This vast stream of dense water vapor pushed above from the ocean and landed onshore in heavy rain and snow.

The fast succession of Pacific storms over the past three months has resulted in an unexpected flip of fortune for a state devastated by drought and wildfires for the preceding four years – a swing in weather extremes experts say is a sign of human-caused climate change.

The harsh winter in California has caused major property damage and upheaval for thousands of residents, with storms blamed for more than 20 deaths.

Yet, the abundant precipitation has replenished dangerously depleted reservoirs and the state’s mountain snowpack.