Flash flooding in northern California leads to soaked roads, one dead

Heavy rain and flash flooding soaked roads in northern California, leading to water rescues from vehicles and homes and at least one confirmed death, authorities said. In Redding, police said they received numerous calls for stranded motorists on Sunday who tried to drive through flooded areas. One person in Redding died, Mayor Mike Littau posted online.

He did not provide further information. Redding has about 93,000 people and is about 160 miles (257 kilometres) north of Sacramento. Between 3 and 6 inches (7.6 centimetres and 15.2 centimeters) had fallen by Sunday night in parts of two counties, the National Weather Service said. In the mountain pass area of Donner Summit, firefighters in Truckee extended a ladder to stranded residents at a house along the South Yuba River, the fire department posted online on Sunday.

No injuries were reported. The weather service office in Sacramento had said a series of warm atmospheric rivers would bring moderate to heavy rain to the Valley, foothills, and mountains the week of Christmas.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapour that form over an ocean and flow through the sky, transporting moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes. Earlier this month, warm weather and air and unusual weather conditions tracing back as far as tropical cyclone flooding in Indonesia helped supercharge stubborn atmospheric rivers that drenched Washington state with nearly 5 trillion gallons (19 trillion litres) of rain in a week, threatening record flood levels, meteorologists said.