California braces for 12th atmospheric river storm

After three years of drought, California is getting battered by atmospheric rivers, tornados and snowstorms, damaging homes and killing dozens.

Battered by a seemingly endless string of damaging storms, California this week endured what was perhaps the most ferocious tempest yet this season — the state’s 12th atmospheric river storm since Christmas.

On Tuesday, a bomb cyclone hammered the Bay Area with hurricane-strength winds. The Federal Aviation Administration implemented ground stops at Oakland International Airport and San Francisco International Airport as gusts exceeded 60 mph. In the Santa Cruz mountains, winds reached 89 mph. 

“This was a violent, sudden wind storm,” said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, during a briefing on storm impacts. 

Then, the storm shifted south, drenching Southern California with heavy rainfall and touching off a tornado in a small city northwest of Los Angeles that damaged about 25 mobile homes, according to the National Weather Service. 

On Wednesday, the storm lingered over Southern California, sending a second tornado swirling through Montebello, just east of Los Angeles. Rated a 110 mph EF1 tornado, it was the strongest to strike in the Los Angeles metro since 1983. At least five people died during these storms, according to the Associated Press.   

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/california-drought-storms-tornado-weather-rcna76410

---