A strong atmospheric river brought damaging winds to northwestern California and flooding rains. Flooding lingered into February.
Every event with a place to put it. Tap one for its entry below.
Deaths and injuries are direct and indirect together, as the offices filed them. Damage is property and crops in the dollars of the year, not adjusted for inflation, and only where an office estimated it.
The episode as NWS EKA wrote it up.
A strong atmospheric river brought damaging winds to northwestern California and flooding rains. Flooding lingered into February.
The local office's own words before the first event, as it sent them, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service text.
NWS Eureka, CA wrote its last area forecast discussion before the first event at Jan 31, 3:01 PM PST, 8 hours 59 minutes earlier.
AREA FORECAST DISCUSSION
National Weather Service Eureka CA
301 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
.SYNOPSIS...A front is moving onshore and continues to bring heavy
rain to the area this afternoon. This is expected to taper off
this evening, but intermittent showers will continue tonight
through Friday. Mainly dry weather is expected Saturday with
another weather system moving up from the south and bringing
more wind, rain, and high elevation snow.
&&
.DISCUSSION...The front has moved onshore and the wind is
diminishing, but the rain remain moderate to heavy. This will
become more showery tonight. The snow levels will fall to around
4,000 feet later tonight. It is uncertain exactly how much snow
will fall at these elevations, but it looks like significant snow
will fall at 5500 feet.
Thursday and Friday an upper low sets up off the west coast and
waves continue to rotate around this low bringing periods of rain
and high elevation snow. Snow levels look to be around 3,000
feet, but snow amounts will be only an inch or two. Friday
afternoon and evening the colder air aloft starts to move in. This
will bring the potential for small hail along the coast. CAPE is
around 100 to 200 j/kg and lapse rates are 7 to 7.5 C/KM. There is
the potential for small hail to accumulate on the roadways,
especially after dark Friday evening. Winds will generally be out
of the south and remain fairly light.
Saturday the upper level low off the coast starts to drop and get
absorbed into another trough moving up from the southwest that
rapidly deepens and becomes a cutoff low. This will bring mainly
dry weather for the day on Saturday. The surface low associated
with this on both the ECMWF and the GFS rapidly drops to 985 or so
on Sunday afternoon or evening. This is expected to bring another
round of rain and wind to Mendocino and Lake counties starting
early Sunday and moving north across the area into the afternoon
and evening. Cold air in Trinity county will start snow levels
down around 2,500 or 3,000 feet. The uncertainty lies in how long
these snow levels are expected to remain low. Models show them
coming up late Sunday afternoon and Sunday night to around 4000
feet.
Monday the weather system looks to continue to bring periods of
rain to the area. It is possible there will still be some low snow
levels in Trinity county, but it generally looks like they will
warm through the day. It is uncertain how quickly this will move
out of the area and some rain may linger on Tuesday. MKK
&&
.AVIATION...The most important weather impact at the TAF sites
and airfields have been strong southerly winds and LLWS today.
These conditions continued throughout the morning and worsened as
the front hit the immediate coast around noon. Rain possibly
impacted some flight operations due to moderate-heavy intensities,
but the Cigs remained generally VFR favorable through most of the
day. However, Vis frequently, but briefly dipped into IFR during
downpours at all terminals. Winds greatly decreased following
frontal passage... including LLWS. Post-frontal Convection
activity can be expected into evening. Rain in MVFR conditions
also expected overnight. /TA
&&
.MARINE...Frontal boundary just offshore has pushed inland north
of Cape Mendocino, but remained just offshore the Mendocino coast
this afternoon. Storm force gusts have been occurring south of Cape
across the southern portion of Mendocino coastal inner waters with
buoy 14 gusting to 48-52 kt. These storm force wind gusts will fall
off rapidly once the boundary moves inland this afternoon. A post
frontal trough in the colder air following the front will bring
another ramp up of S-SW winds, mostly north of Cape Mendocino,
tonight into Thu. Potential for a few gale gusts will exist due to
weak instability and potential for isolated thunderstorms. A
hazardous seas warning has been issued for all waters tonight
through Thu due to steep wind waves coupled with a building WSW
swell. There appears to be a break after the steep short period
waves subside and the arrival of longer period swell. Unsettled
conditions will continue ion Friday as another large and nearly
squared west-northwest swell builds while marginal instability for
isolated tstms persists.
Deterministic and ensemble guidance continues to indicate another
vertically stacked low pressure system tracking N-NE toward Pt Arena
and Cape Mendocino Sunday-Monday. Threat for gale or storm force
winds, mostly for the southern waters, will increase. There appears
to be strong easterly wind component and wave generation
- at least nearshore - appears minimal. That will depend exactly
where the low tracks and how rapidly it deepens. Beefed up the
winds with potential for gust of 40-50kt as early as Sunday and as
late as Monday. DB
&&
.BEACH HAZARDS...A large west-southwest swell will build into the
waters this afternoon, peaking around 18-22 feet in deep water late
tonight into the day on Thu. This will likely result in breaking
waves from 23 to 25 ft in shallow water and hazardous surf is
probable along the entire Northwest California coast from late this
evening through Thu evening. A high surf advisory remains in effect.
High tides are projected to reach 6.4 ft and the risk for coastal
inundation or coastal flooding remains very low even with an
storm surge and anomaly of 2 ft. DB
&&
.EKA WATCHES/WARNINGS/ADVISORIES...
CA...
Flood Watch through Thursday morning for CAZ101>106-108>115.
High Surf Advisory from 10 PM this evening to 10 PM PST
Thursday for CAZ101-103-104-109.
Wind Advisory until 5 PM PST this afternoon for CAZ107-108-
110>115.
Winter Storm Warning until noon PST Thursday for CAZ107.
NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA COASTAL WATERS...
Hazardous Seas Warning until 6 PM PST Thursday for PZZ450-
455-470-475.
&&
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https://www.weather.gov/images/eka/zonemap.pngPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Eureka CA
939 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0928 PM Debris Flow 2 W Clearlake Oaks 39.02N 122.69W
01/31/2024 Lake CA Law Enforcement
Rocks and tree debris across both lanes of
the 20.
&&
EYSPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Eureka CA
945 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0921 PM Debris Flow 5 SW Lakeport 38.99N 122.97W
01/31/2024 Lake CA Law Enforcement
Slide into the roadway.
&&
EYSPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Eureka CA
952 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0911 PM Debris Flow 1 SSW Salyer 40.89N 123.57W
01/31/2024 Trinity CA Law Enforcement
Rocks in the roadway from washout.
&&
EYSPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Eureka CA
1002 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0922 PM Debris Flow 1 S Hoopa 41.04N 123.67W
01/31/2024 Humboldt CA Law Enforcement
&&
EYSPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Eureka CA
1020 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0956 PM Flood 8 SSW Comptche 39.18N 123.68W
01/31/2024 Mendocino CA Law Enforcement
Highway 128 closed from MM 00 to MM 11.6 due
to flooding.
&&
EYSPreliminary Local Storm Report
National Weather Service Eureka CA
1026 PM PST Wed Jan 31 2024
..TIME... ...EVENT... ...CITY LOCATION... ...LAT.LON...
..DATE... ....MAG.... ..COUNTY LOCATION..ST.. ...SOURCE....
..REMARKS..
0953 PM Flood 1 W Redwood Valley 39.27N 123.22W
01/31/2024 Mendocino CA Law Enforcement
Deep water in southbound lane. West Road and
Road N.
&&
EYSThe national radar mosaic for the moment the first event began.
2 flood. Local standard time, as filed.
Navarro River exceeded flood stage causing flooding on Highway 128 and its closure.
The Russian River exceeded flood stage resulting in flooding of Highway 175 and the closure of the road.
After NWS Directive 10-1605, the rules offices file Storm Data by.
Every storm in California in 2024Every state in 2024This day in weather historyWarnings in California, February 2024
NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database, compiled from the National Weather Service’s monthly Storm Data. Complete through 2026-06; NCEI adds each month about 75 days after it ends and revises past years a few times a year. Rebuilt 2026-09-24. Each event’s entry at NCEI: 1151476, 1151477.