[Over and over when I'm searching for reports about the atmospheric River that is hitting the Pacific coast, this channel comes up. Here is first of four maybe more videos about recent California floods, all of them from SON Street Food, who apparently has changed their focus. Good job, here goes -ke] READ & WATCH: 1 Minute Ago Terrifying Storm Floods and King Tides Turn San Francisco, California- transcript below- Jan 4, 2026 A powerful Pacific storm combined with record king tides has turned parts of San Francisco, California into raging rivers, flooding highways, waterfront neighborhoods and low-lying streets. [SON Street Food
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37 videos][KE must have changed their focus...] TRANSCRIPT [Music] Right now, Northern California is getting a dangerous preview of its future. King tides and a Pacific storm have turned Bay Area streets into brown fast water, trapping cars and killing at least one person. Here is the important part. This is only the first wave for Northern California. This weekend is not a normal high tide cycle. On January 3rd, local time, a Pacific storm arrived at the same moment as the strongest king tides in more than 20 years, pushing water higher into the San Francisco Bay than many people have ever seen in their lifetimes. Tide gauges near Chrissy Field in San Francisco measured some of the highest water levels since 1998, placing this event in the near historic category, according to local media and forecasters. The impact has been felt first along the low-lying edges of the bay. Counties such as Marine, Soma, Alama, and San Monteo, as well as parts of central San Francisco, have seen neighborhoods and business districts turn into shallow lakes. Along Highway 101 between Saucelo and San Raphael, underpasses and stretches near Marshand filled quickly, trapping cars and water up to chest level as rescue teams pulled drivers and passengers to safety. In RV parks and waterfront communities near Corta Madera and Mil Valley, residents woke up to find their steps and walkways underwater with kayaks and small boats suddenly becoming the safest way to move around the block. According to the National Weather Service and local reports, this first surge of flooding is not the end of the story. Forecast call for an additional 40 to 50 millimeters of rain across many lowland areas and up to 100 millimeters along the coastal mountains including Mount Tamal Vampas in the Santa Cruz range over the next couple of days. That extra rain will run off into rivers, creeks, and storm drains that are already stressed by today's high water, turning this from a one-day headline into a multi-day test of levies, pumps, and drainage systems around the bay. In the next minutes, we will move from the shoreline into the storm itself and see how the cold side of this system is building a different kind of risk in the Sierra Nevada. While low-lying neighborhoods around the bay are dealing with flood water, the cold side of this storm is reshaping the Sierra Nevada. From Donner Pass to the high ridges above Lake Tahoe, heavy wind-driven snow has turned major routes into narrow corridors of white. Chain controls are in place on key highways. Visibility drops to just a few car lengths in the strongest bands and snow plows are working in rotating shifts simply to keep the lanes open. The National Weather Service has issued winter storm warnings for the higher elevations with several feet of new snow expected on the highest peaks. On exposed ridge lines, gusts over 100 miles per hour have been recorded by resort stations and highway sensors, blasting fresh snow sideways across roads, parking lots, and ski area access points. Here's the important part. This is not just a typical weekend system for the mountains. When snow falls this fast, with wind this strong, officials are urging people to delay all non-essential travel. For mountain towns and ski communities, the concern is not only the hours during the storm, but the days that follow. Deep drifts, downed branches, power outages, and rising avalanche danger can linger long after the radar echoes fade. And every new inch that piles up on the Sierra Crest tonight is future runoff for the rivers and reservoirs that sit downstream from the already flooded shores of the bay. In the next part of this report, we will follow this winter system as it stretches inland into Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming, turning a coastal flooding story into a full western storm corridor. As the storm leaves California, it does not simply fade out over the desert. The same winter system is now stretching deep into the interior west, turning parts of Nevada, Idaho, and Wyoming into the next targets on the map. According to local forecasts, a second pulse of winter weather is sliding across the northern Great Basin and into the northern Rockies, bringing fresh snow, strong winds, and rapidly changing road conditions. In eastern Idaho and western Wyoming, snow returned during the afternoon and evening of January 3rd. According to Local News 8 and National Weather Service updates, the heaviest snow is focused on the higher terrain where totals could reach around 20 cm on some ranges by the time this round is finished. Lower valleys see a mix of light snow and cold rain. But every new centimeter that sticks on mountain passes makes driving more difficult and extends the window for slick icy conditions after dark. Here is the important part. Farther east along the Salt River in Wyoming ranges, a winter weather advisory from the National Weather Service in Riverton calls for 15 to 30 cm of new snow with wind gusts that can reach about 65 kmh. In exposed spots where the wind funnels through gaps and over ridge lines, drifts can deepen quickly and visibility can drop to near zero as blowing snow sweeps across open stretches of highway. For drivers, that means even a short trip between small towns can turn into a slow, tense crawl behind plows in emergency vehicles. North of there, the same storm energy arcs into Yellowstone National Park and the Northern Rockies. According to forecasts, most of the park can expect around 10 to 20 cm of new snow, while Southwest pockets could see much higher totals approaching half a meter in the most favored terrain. On top of existing snow pack, that extra weight combined with wind gusts near 70 kilometers per hour creates a recipe for slick roads, hidden ice, and building avalanche danger on steep slopes. For visitors, rangers, and local workers, the message is clear. This is a night to check advisories twice, rethink non-essential plans, and prepare for a west that will wake up even more deeply buried under winter by morning. In the next part, we will step back once more and look at what all of this means for the week ahead. From travel plans and power grids to the slow rise of rivers fed by every flake that is now falling. By now, this storm is no longer just a single swirl on the weather map. It has become a chain of impacts that runs from the edge of the Pacific to the high spine of the Rockies. Around the San Francisco Bay, low underpasses and frontage roads are still drying out after hours underwater. In the Sierra Nevada, fresh snow and wind have turned mountain passes into moving tunnels of white. Farther inland in Idaho and Wyoming, plow convoys and salt trucks are crawling along two-lane highways that normally feel routine. For millions of people, the message is simple. This is a week when travel, deliveries, and daily routines are all at the mercy of the weather. Airports and freeways are where that pressure shows up first. When a few hundred meters of coastal road near a major bridge flood, detours ripple out to freight trucks, commuter buses, and emergency vehicles at the same time. Inland, strong winds and heavy snow trigger spinouts, chain requirements, and temporary closures on key routes that carry food, fuel, and medical supplies across state lines. Here's the important part. This combination of coastal flooding and mountain snow does not just slow down individual trips. It reveals how much the western transport network depends on a few critical corridors staying open. The same pattern is playing out in the power grid and basic services. Wet, heavy snow on tree branches, saturated ground root systems, and gusty winds over long stretches of line. It are a classic recipe for scattered outages. Utility crews can replace poles, rering wire and move generators, but they cannot control the terrain or the weather window they have to work in. For some neighborhoods, a short outage is an inconvenience. For others, especially where people depend on electric heat, home medical equipment, or well pumps, even a few hours without power can quickly become a serious risk if backup plans are not ready. All of this is happening while the background level of water in the system keeps rising. Every new layer of snow in the Sierra Nevada and the northern Rockies is future runoff when temperatures climb. Every round of rain on soil that is already wet shortens the distance between a normal storm and the moment when small creeks begin to spill over their banks. That is why forecasters keep repeating the same advice. Do not just watch what the storm is doing today. Watch how much water the landscape is being asked to hold over the next several days. In the next part, we will step down from the regional map to the neighborhood level and look at what this evolving pattern means for homes, local roads, and communities that live close to floodprone slopes and rivers. For individual households, this kind of week is not just a weather story on a screen. It is a set of decisions that start the moment you look outside and see water in places it usually does not reach. Along the low-lying edges of the Bay Area, in small towns below the Sierra Nevada, and in neighborhoods across Idaho and Wyoming, the margin for error is smaller than it was at the start of this season. Driveways, parking lots, and side streets are now acting as part of the drainage system, whether they were designed for that role or not. Here is the important part. Most serious problems in events like this do not begin with a dramatic wall of water. They begin when ordinary systems quietly stop working the way people expect. A storm drain clogs with leaves and a shallow puddle outside a garage in Marinine or Alama turns into a slow sheet of water that seeps under the door. A roadside ditch near a county road in the central valley fills and overflows. And suddenly, a car that seems safe on the shoulder is sitting in moving water deep enough to stall the engine. A small slide above a backyard or a rural lane in the foothills brings down just enough mud and rock to block a route that emergency vehicles might need later in the night. For families, the most important tools are often simple and low tech. Knowing in advance which streets tend to flood first in your area, where the nearest higher ground or dry parking lot is, and which neighbors might need help if the power goes out can matter more than any single radar image. In many western communities, local officials and emergency managers now urge people to keep basic supplies and a small go bag ready. Not because a mass evacuation is guaranteed, but because a few hours of blocked roads or a short notice evacuation order can arrive quickly when the ground is already saturated. These storms also expose quiet inequalities. People who live in newer elevated buildings with secure parking and backup power experience the same weather very differently from those in older homes, mobile parks near riverbanks or dense neighborhoods with limited drainage. Renters in basement units, night shift workers who must commute along low-lying routes and families without easy access to a car are often the first to feel the full impact when a forecast turns into a flooded street or a dark, cold apartment. For them, official maps and advisories only help if they are clear, trusted, and delivered in time in the languages and channels they actually use. That is why forecasters and local agencies keep returning to the same message in different words. Do not wait for a dramatic siren to think about what you would do if water rose quickly on your block or if the lights went out for several hours during the coldest part of the night. Talk through a simple plan, check the routes you depend on, and follow updates from trusted local sources instead of relying only on short social media clips. In the final part of this report, we will step back to the wider map again and look at what the next few days of forecast suggest and how weeks like this fit into a longer pattern that is quietly changing the way the West has to think about winter storms, flooding, and the shifting line between land and water. Over the next several days, the weather map over the western United States will stay active. Forecast models continue to show a conveyor belt of Pacific energy brushing the coast with smaller lows and frontal waves following the same corridor that just brought flooding to the Bay Area and deep snow to the Sierra Nevada. Some of these systems may be weaker, others may arrive as short, sharp bursts, but together they will keep the atmosphere unsettled from the shoreline to the high country. For people who have already lived through one long weekend of disruption, this is not a week to count on an instant return to quiet blue sky winter. For California, the key question now is not only how strong each new storm is, but what it falls on. Along parts of the coast and in many valleys, soils are already saturated. Rivers and creeks have risen once and have only partially receded. In the Sierra Nevada, the snow pack has taken a sudden jump with fresh layers stacked on top of older, colder snow. When the next rounds of rain and mountain snow arrive, even if totals are lower, runoff will respond more quickly than it did at the start of the season. The window between a normal rainy day and water reaching problem levels on small streams, culverts, and low crossings can shrink to just a few hours. Farther inland from Nevada into Idaho, Wyoming, and the northern Rockies, the pattern is similar. Short breaks between waves give road crews time to clear passes, utility workers time to repair lines, and communities time to restock. But each new band of snow and wind rebuilds the risks that had just been reduced. In some basins, cold air trapped in the valleys will hold snow and ice in place for days, while higher terrain continues to collect new layers with every passing disturbance. When a warmer, wetter storm eventually arrives later in the month or later in the season, that deep uneven snow pack can turn into fast runoff, rising streams, and a new round of flood watches far from the ocean. Here's the important part. What the West is seeing this week is not just an odd tangle of tides, storms, and snow. It is a clear example of how different pieces of the water cycle can now stack on top of each other more often, testing coastlines, river systems, roads, and neighborhoods at the same time. King tides that reach farther inland, storms that carry more moisture, and winters that swing more sharply between dry spells, and very wet weeks all add up to a landscape where once in a decade patterns can appear more than once in a single generation. In the end of this report, we will pull these threads together, look at what this means beyond the next 7-day forecast, and talk about how communities along the West Coast and across the interior can use weeks like this as both a warning and an opportunity to prepare for the next test. In the end, this week's storms will move on and the maps will calm down. But the marks they leave on roads, river banks, and mountain slopes will last much longer than the headlines. Each flooded underpass around the Bay Area, each snow choked pass in the Sierra, and each wind carved drift in the Interior West is a reminder that the line between land, water, and weather is shifting, and that the next test may arrive sooner than we expect. If this report helped you understand what is happening and what to watch for, please subscribe to the channel and turn on notifications so you do not miss our next update. Question for you in the comments. Where are you following these storms from? And what has this winter week looked like in your area? ***https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wSwMgEP2LM
[KE: Everything scientists predicted about global warming/ climate change since the 1970s is coming true, only faster]
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