flooding

An “extremely dangerous situation” was unfolding in the Hollywood Hills area and around the Santa Monica Mountains early Monday, as a powerful, slow-moving storm triggered mudflows and debris flows that damaged some homes and forced residents to evacuate.“Life-threatening landslides and additional flash flooding expected overnight,” the National Weather Service warned. “Avoid travel if at all possible.” Forecasters expressed deep concern also about Griffith Park, nearby foothills and Malibu and Beverly Hills. A flash…

Officials across Southern and Central California are urgently warning residents to prepare for what could be “life-threatening and damaging flooding” beginning Sunday, as a storm system fueled by a massive atmospheric river brings heavy, sustained rainfall and dangerous waves to an already soaked region. This next storm could dump more than double the rain that the region saw Thursday, which on its own caused significant flooding, road closures and some water rescues. “This is a potentially dangerous situation and we are…

A woman in a canoe during an 1890 flood in Portland, which was similar to floods in the 1860s. Credit: Oregon Historical Society Research Library An 1867 flood in western Washington surpassed anything that the region has seen in the last century, new University of Oregon research shows, offering a foreboding look at what storms fueled by climate change could now produce. …

When AI researcher Melanie Mitchell published Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans in 2019, she set out to clarify AI’s impact. A few years later, ChatGPT set off a new AI boom—with a side effect that caught her off guard. An AI-generated imitation of her book appeared on Amazon, in an apparent scheme to profit off her work. It looks like another example of the ecommerce giant’s ongoing problem with a glut of low-quality AI-generated ebooks.Mitchell learned that searching Amazon for her book surfaced not…

“I remember taking so many tours out there,” said Rentner, “and all the public funding agency partners would go, ‘OK, so you have a million dollars in hand, and you still need how many? How are you going to get there?’”“I don’t know,” Rentner told them in response. “We’re just gonna keep writing proposals, I guess.”Even once River Partners bought the land in 2012, Rentner found herself in a permitting nightmare: Each grant came with a separate set of conditions for what River Partners could and couldn’t do with the money,…

Every year, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) ranks the top 10 Canadian weather stories. Senior climatologist David Phillips compiles the list and this year, there was no doubt about what would take the number one position: the record-setting wildfires."There's no drum roll here," Phillips said. "The fires dominated everything.... In 28 years of putting together , it's never been a more obvious number one."Wildfire season got an early start due, in part, to the persistent drought conditions across B.C. and in…

When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places: An ice skating rink near Disneyland, ski slopes around Lake Tahoe, farmland in the Central Valley.And — coming soon — kitchen faucets.California regulators on Tuesday approved new rules to let water agencies recycle wastewater and put it right back into the pipes that carry drinking water to homes, schools and businesses.It's a big step for a state that has struggled for decades to secure reliable sources of drinking water for its more than…

Southern California’s stormy week is set to wind down Friday after two storm systems that brought tornado warnings, heavy flooding and at-times historic rainfall rates, especially in parts of Ventura County.At least 60 homes were red-tagged in Ventura County as a result of flooding, which hit Oxnard and Port Hueneme hard.For the most part, the bulk of the rain seems to be past. Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, said rain was expected to continue in moderate amounts Friday with a slight chance…

This story was originally published by Grist and co-published with Fresnoland. Sign up for Grist’s weekly newsletter here.Extreme Weather Events in 2022 | Extreme EarthThe land of the Central Valley works hard. Here in the heart of California, in the most productive farming region in the United States, almost every square inch of land has been razed, planted, and shaped to support large-scale agriculture. The valley produces almonds, walnuts, pistachios, olives, cherries, beans, eggs, milk, beef, melons, pumpkins, sweet…

A once-in-a-millennium storm brought flooding to roadways across Ventura County and a brief tornado warning early Thursday, with more rain expected for Southern California through Friday.For an hour, more than 3 inches of rain fell on the Oxnard plains in Ventura County, according to the National Weather Service. The Ventura County Fire Department reported that 911 dispatchers received over 275 calls for help over a five-hour period as floodwaters rose in the coastal communities of Port Hueneme and Oxnard.“The…