Landslides are a guarantee in areas where there have been sincere drought.
Storm system moves into Northern California (click here)
Nevada is being hard hit, too. The people were looking forward to some storms,but, welcomed the idea that the drought could be broken. These storms will make a dent in some of the drought, but, may not end all of it. There is a lot of top soil that is being washed downhill. One might remember the Colorado floods a few years back when the upper elevations were drenched and it loosened all the soil and drove not just silt but dislodged trees downhill. The people were completely unprepared for what came off those mountains. This isn't just the creek rising, this is enormous amounts of water running off higher elevations.
Don't shoot the messengers. The USA has the best forest managers in the world, but, they don't give orders to Earth.
Link to Map (click here)
January 3, 2017
The week was rather cold and tranquil, (click here) with precipitation totals of 1.5-4 inches in the Cascades, 1-2 inches along the Oregon and northern California coasts, 1-2 inches in the Sierra Nevada, and 0.5-2.5 inches across the Southwest, including southern California and Arizona for the second consecutive week. Downtown Los Angeles recorded its wettest month (4.55 inches in December) since December 2010 (10.23 inches). Temperatures averaged below normal in the West, with anomalies of -10 to -16 deg F in eastern Oregon, southern Idaho, northern Nevada, and western Utah. As of January 3, NRCS basin average precipitation for the Water Year (since Oct. 1) was above normal in much of the West, with below-normal basins (70-99%) limited to parts of New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Basin average snow water content was also faring well, with most basins near or above normal as of Jan. 3. Some basins, however, in southern New Mexico, western Montana, northern Idaho, eastern Washington, and California were below normal. As a result of the wet start to the Water Year in southeastern California, southern Nevada, and southwestern Arizona (and supported by indices and lack of negative impacts), a 1-category improvement was made there. In southern Utah (San Juan and Kane counties), with snowpack levels above normal and indices near normal, the D0 was removed. Elsewhere, status-quo was maintained in the rest of the West after several improvements were made the previous 2 weeks.
