The second of back-to-back atmospheric rivers battered California on Sunday, flooding roadways and knocking out power to more than 845,000 people and prompting a rare warning for hurricane-force winds as the state braced for what could be days of heavy rains.
Atmospheric rivers are storms akin to rivers in the sky that dump massive amounts of rain and can cause flooding, trigger mudslides and result in loss of life and enormous property damage.
Sunday’s storm inundated streets and brought down trees and electrical lines across the San Francisco Bay Area, where winds topped 96 km/h in some areas. Gusts exceeding 128 km/h were