ABC News says that Southern California just had a record amount of rain, and it might not be over yet.
In San Diego, California, on Monday, it rained more than a month’s worth of rain in just three hours. The National Weather Service said it was the city’s wettest day ever in January and the wettest day ever in the past 100 years. People in southern California got 2.73 inches of rain. In January, the normal amount of rain that falls in the San Diego area is 1.98 inches.
There has been a lot of rain along the whole coast of California. In some places of the area, it snowed up to 9 inches over the weekend. It’s supposed to rain a lot more in San Diego and other parts of California, which could be a problem for places that are already having trouble with floods.
Scientists who study the weather call this pattern of rain in California the El Nino Pattern. The current trend of rain and weather is expected to last for a few more weeks. It could change how the forecast for February looks. The weather report says that these parts of California will see more rain during the first week of February.
Experts in the weather say that the “El Nino Pattern” includes several rounds of heavy rain and a long time of unsettled rainy weather. Experts also said that people could be making El Nino happen more often because of global warming and changes in the climate.
The experts also said that this weather is most likely coming from “atmospheric rivers.” These are basically paths in the atmosphere that take moisture from warm and humid areas and send it to other places, like California. Therefore, climate change is likely to change how strong and how often these atmospheric rivers happen, according to scientists.
Concerns are raised as experts talk about how likely it is that places will flood, mudslide, and have other problems when it rains a lot and water comes in. Places that are going to get rain every day for the next few weeks should be especially worried about this.
