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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:13pm PT
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I heard they are diverting the truckee towards Mound House , Nevada..I hope Honey Boo Boo has waterproofed his stuffed animals and crack supply....?
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:23pm PT
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kunlun_shan, There is a description of the 1861 flood event in "Up and Down California" by William Brewer which is basically a diary of his years on the Whitney survey party from 1861 to 1864, most excellent read. Drop me a PM about skiing, likely heading out tomorrow for high ground.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Nov 30, 2012 - 10:44pm PT
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Kirkwood forecast for tonight is snow.....then mixed snow/rain tomorrow through Sunday. Snow level 8000 feet
YUCK
RAIN again starting Tuesday. At 8000 feet.
So much for skiing.
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, CA
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Nov 30, 2012 - 11:31pm PT
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Call that a storm?
Meh? I knew everyone was selling it...
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Hard to say how bad it will be. Hopefully not to many properties involved. But historically we get floods at least once every decade so most residents here are pretty aware if it is a problem for their home or business.
Where to get sandbags for Reno/Sparks Washoe County NV
http://floodawareness.com/136/where_to_get_sand_bags.html
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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This system has been a lightweight for S Calif, only about a 1/2" storm total here.
It does look like a pineapple express flow is setting up pulling water up from over the SE Asia and off the Tibetan Plateau, then north of Hawaii. that's when it seems to hit us. Maybe we'll get a real storm in a week or so.
If the flow is up from the equator and south of Hawaii, like this system started out, it seems to hit north of Pt. Conception and we don't get much.
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/satellite/ssec/wide-view-us-pacific-asia-sat.html
Here's the best piece I've seen on 1861.
http://www.redlandsfortnightly.org/papers/Taylor06.htm
No comparison at all to this. It destroyed 1/3 of the tax base in the state and drowned 1/4 of the cattle.
The flood ended the California cattle ranch industry and destroyed the ranchero social order.
For a week the tides at the Golden Gate did not flood, rather there was continuous and forceful ebb of brown fresh water 18-20 feet deep pouring out above the salt water. A sea captain reported that his heavily laden ship foundered in the Gulf of the Farallons off of San Francisco, due to the layer of fresh water. Fresh-water fish were caught in San Francisco Bay for several months after the peaks of the flood. These events have not happened since. (Ellis 1936)
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Srbphoto
climber
Kennewick wa
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bigs storms usually do mean great fishing in the bay. It's kind of like flushing the toilet. Out with the old and in with the new
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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Call that a storm?
Bluey.....nah....not the BIGGEST storm I've ever seen up here on Castle Rock Ridge. There was that one in......
but I digress
6" rain since Thursday. And still raining. 1" overnight and it didn't feel like it was raining at all by comparison to Thurs night.
c'mon up to Castle Rock for some slick rock bouldering.....bring your Wellies! your snorkel too and we'll do the falls routes.
For a week the tides at the Golden Gate did not flood, rather there was continuous and forceful ebb of brown fresh water 18-20 feet deep pouring out above the salt water And now we have a dozen or so big dams on the Sacramento/San Joaquin so that's not likely to happen again.
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tallguy
Trad climber
eastside
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In terms of the ability of dams to do much flood control in a storm series like those big historical ones, don't get your hopes up. Dams do a pretty good job on the normal and usual storms, as there is only so much water management they can accomplish. Once it gets a little unusual, like in 1998 when dam flood control was basically overwhelmed, dams pretty mcuh stop working, because when the reservoir is full, its like the dam isn't even there. Water in always has to equal water out, so those historical flood conditions might not be as unexpected as you are assuming.
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Mighty Hiker
climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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The devastation caused by gold miners may have had something to do with the impacts of the flood of 1861. They created a huge amount of deforestation, especially in the foothills.
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HighTraverse
Trad climber
Bay Area
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so those historical flood conditions might not be as unexpected as you are assuming. Yes, I was thinking about the possible massive overtopping. Less likely because with a forecast, extra water can be released from the reservoirs in advance. But still possible.
And then there are the unusual, but certainly possible again, conditions that created the Yosemite Valley flood of 1997.
MH.....yup.....also the upturning of the stream beds bringing rock to the top and placer mining washing the topsoil away.
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TGT
Social climber
So Cal
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Hydraulic mining was a minor contributing factor in the 1861 flood. Mostly in the debris that it liberated down stream that tore up log dams and retaining basins.
The Sacramento, and San Joaqin valleys were lakes for almost a month and Orange County was an inland sea for three weeks. Flow of the Santa Ana river at the narrows was an estimated 320,000 CFS To give that some perspective the average flow of the Missippi is 450,000 CFS.
Even the Mojave river was 20' above flood stage and most of the desert lake beds filled.
I doubt the flood cotrol system could handle it at either end of the state.
For example even if Prado Dam did hold in a repeat of 1861 there would be a deep lake streching from Pomona to Redlands and from the San Gabriels to Corona that would take months to drain without wiping out Anaheim and the coastal cities.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, TGT...
as to this qoute of yours:
Hydraulic mining was a minor contributing factor in the 1861 flood. Mostly in the debris that it liberated down stream that tore up log dams and retaining basins.
The Sacramento, and San Joaqin valleys were lakes for almost a month and Orange County was an inland sea for three weeks. Flow of the Santa Ana river at the narrows was an estimated 320,000 CFS To give that some perspective the average flow of the Missippi is 450,000 CFS.
Even the Mojave river was 20' above flood stage and most of the desert lake beds filled
WOW--the things that they did NOT teach us in our calif history...
wish they had...
thanks for sharing... i never knew of this...
also, say, ron:
neat pics of the past flooding, etc...
thanks for sharing...
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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hey there say, all you calif folks near this area:
brentwood, etc..
i got a friend there and she's said that she often wonders what wuold
happened, and/or, what it would take to make those levee's overflow...
she's fairly certain it just might flood her home, if they did...
they've had up to two inches around there home, from hard rains...
(not sure if she ment now, from the storm, or from a past one--put it IS raining-wet there, now) ...
thanks for any shares or thoughts or knowledge on this...
:)
edit:
say, i think, though i did not read the article, but:
it LOOKS like there is another storm system ALREADY coming
in, next, really soon?
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bergbryce
Mountain climber
California
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Discovery Bay, right next to Brentwood and many central Delta areas are protected by one measly levee with some Delta properties actually lying under high tide line. That area is a massive disaster waiting to happen.
Probably not this time, but a similar series of storms on top of a huge snowpack might do it.
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Jingy
climber
Somewhere out there
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uhm… maybe its just me or something…
BUT THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A BIG STORM IN CALIFORNIA!!!
Ok, there have been storms… but given that these 3 "big" storms look nothing larger than I've ever seen before in my life. I am inclined to believe that this one is of no more significants than any other "fall weather"…. rainy, cloudy, foggy (in my area), cold….. Overall, the 3-pack of clouds has nothing in them.
I can change my mind when I see more under water than not under water
To be honest there seems to be nothing out of the ordinary with this weather….But I guess with Sandy hitting the east the west wants to get back some of that tragedy attention, I guess.
But then again…. people almost never do that… do they?
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mrtropy
Trad climber
Nor Cal
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Hundreds of homes in Weston Ranch, Just south of Stockton were built on a flood plane. Crappy homes that sold for over 5k and now worth about 2K. Just stupid they ever built there except for the developers.
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John M
climber
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Why does big automatically get misconstrued as biggest?
Are you all retarded?
I was sort of wondering the same thing, though I was thinking in terms of being misconstrued as catastrophic. I understood that you were just stoked for the potential of some serious snow. If it had snowed down just a little bit lower it would have been fantastic.
In their defense, there were a number of news reports that focused on how potentially enormous it could have been.
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John M
climber
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Well sh#t.. I knew it was benign. Didn't' think about climbers going out in it.
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