California rains raise flood concerns

San Francisco had record rainfall on Friday as subtropical moisture streaming from Hawaii pounded the north

Tourists streamed out of Yosemite National Park, San Francisco baseball fans had a game cancelled by rain for the first time in a dozen years, and authorities kept a close eye on swelling rivers and rising water at a damaged dam as a “Pineapple Express” storm drenched Northern California.

San Francisco had record rainfall on Friday as an “atmospheric river” of subtropical moisture streaming from Hawaii pounded the north while leaving Southern California high and dry.

No major problems were reported but flood warnings and watches remained in effect yesterday for the Sierra Nevada, the Santa Cruz Mountains south of San Francisco and other areas while authorities warned that flash floods, mudflows and rock slides were possible in heavy rain, especially in the wine country north of San Francisco where wildfires last October stripped the ground bare of soil-gripping plant life.

Fear of melting snow

Runoff from melting snow could add to the chance of rapidly rising mountain streams and rivers in the Sierra, the National Weather Service warned.

Yosemite National Park closed campgrounds and lodging in its busy Yosemite Valley because of flooding concerns, with the Merced River there expected to peak 1.5 metres above flood stage yesterday.

Downtown San Francisco saw nearly 5 centimetres of rain on Friday, making it the fourth-wettest April day since records began.

San Francisco International Airport reported about 150 cancelled flights because of the weather and others were delayed an hour or more.

A cancelled flight stranded Santa Rosa native Lydia Smith who was trying to reach Oregon for a baby shower.

“I’m like on the verge of tears,” she told KGO-TV.

The opener of the San Francisco Giants-Los Angeles Dodgers weekend series was rained out, the first at the Giants ballpark in 12 years. Saturday’s game was also pushed back by two hours to 3:05 PDT.

Sacramento broke its record for the day with well over 2.5 centimetres.

Some areas got much more rain, however.

In Sonoma County on Friday, rescuers pulled two people and two dogs from a car that became swamped to the door handles on a flooded road. Bodega Bay in the county received nearly 15.2 centimetres of rain for the day — more than the entire rainfall total for March, according to the weather service.

The big concern wasn’t the amount of rain but how fast it might fall.