As California prepares for another powerful atmospheric river storm on Sunday, Tulare Lake continues to remind visitors of the powerful consequences these extreme storms can create.
Floodwaters from the lake, which formed after nearly a dozen atmospheric river storms hit California in 2023, are still spreading across thousands of acres of prime farmland more than nine months after the resurrection of what some call a “ghost lake.” .
This summer, the lake’s stagnant waters became a hotspot for wild birds, causing an outbreak of avian botulism; This has forced wildlife officials to patrol in airboats and collect hundreds of dead birds every day. Submerged vehicles and telecommunications equipment remained at the bottom of the lake bed, leaving farm operators unable to access their fields.
The lake’s continued presence in this corner of the Central Valley illustrates how the environmental effects of last year’s extreme rainfall still reverberate across California. This weekend’s storms may bring heavy rainfall to other parts of the state, but most flood impacts are not expected to last that long.
Today, Tulare Lake is rapidly shrinking despite recent rains. As of Thursday, the water had covered about 4,532 acres of farmland, according to Justin Caporusso, public information officer for Kings County, where the floodwaters settled. This means the lake is less than 1/20 the size of last year’s peak, and life is approaching normal for those living nearby.
Sergeant. Nate Ferrier of the Kings County Sheriff’s Department, who visited the lake in late January, said most of the lake has been cleared.
“The farming community has already come back to life,” he said. “There were tractors everywhere.”
More than a century ago, the lake was a natural feature of the southern San Joaquin Valley before settlers dug irrigation ditches to redirect water and drain the land for agriculture. Last year, floodwaters filled the Tulare Basin as reservoirs were unable to handle the massive influx of snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada following a series of storms.
This week’s atmospheric river storms (which will be punctuated by a significant storm on Sunday) are unlikely to have much impact on Tulare Lake, Caporusso said in an email. Reservoirs above the lake have the capacity to handle precipitation, and the California Department of Water Resources has found that the southern Sierra has about 45% more snow than it normally does this time of year.
But the storm is expected to have widespread impacts elsewhere in the state, including near Los Angeles. An atmospheric river is expected to arrive Sunday and last through Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service in Los Angeles. The weather service said it expects “MAJOR amounts of rain” and “major hydrological issues” along the central coast and interior valleys.
“People need to start preparing now,” forecasters insisted.
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, said soils from San Francisco to San Diego are saturated, meaning heavy rainfall can quickly trigger flooding.
“We are expecting a very significant event with the potential for widespread and potentially severe flooding in Southern California,” Swain said in a YouTube briefing.
Swain said a marine heat wave off the California coast likely helped increase storm activity in California this season and could cause heavy rainfall during “localized showers.” Four communities — San Francisco, Ventura, Long Beach and San Diego — experienced heavy rainfall that caused urban flooding, likely linked to warm ocean waters, Swain said.
“I would actually expect this to happen again somewhere between San Francisco and San Diego because of the impending storm event,” Swain said. “If this happens somewhere, that’s probably where there will be flash and potentially serious flooding.”
It will be the second atmospheric river in a week. Wednesday’s storm required multiple rescues and traffic backups.
Atmospheric rivers are clouds of moisture that travel hundreds of kilometers across the Pacific Ocean. The storms currently hitting California are called “Pineapple Expresses” because their moisture comes from waters near Hawaii.
Atmospheric rivers may be key drivers of precipitation for the West Coast, causing an average of more than $1.1 billion in flood damage annually, according to research published in 2022 in the journal Scientific Reports. Research shows that approximately 84 percent of flood damage in Western states is associated with atmospheric rivers.
Scientists think climate change is increasing the strength of these storms. A warmer atmosphere can absorb more water vapor, giving storms the capacity to deliver more extreme precipitation.
This article first appeared on NBCNews.com.