What the Weekend Rains Did to Southern California—and What a Real Hurricane Could DoBy: By: Bob Henson , 3:07 PM GMT on July 21, 2015 - Wunderground
Full Post:
http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=3050Figure 1. Emergency crews respond after a pickup truck crashed into the collapse of an elevated section of Interstate 10 on Sunday, July 19, 2015, in Desert Center, Calif. The bridge, which carries the eastbound interstate about 15 feet above a normally dry wash, snapped and ended up in the flooding water below, the California Highway Patrol said, blocking all traffic headed toward Arizona. Image credit: Chief Geoff Pemberton/CAL FIRE/Riverside County Fire, via AP.
This is weird!If some one had asked me a few weeks ago for places in Southern California that needed infrastructure improvements in preparation for threats of Climate Change, it would not have been a remote bridge on Interstate-10 in the barren desert near the Arizona border. I've driven across that bridge no less than 20 times in my life. Fortunately no lives were lost, however, the long range impact will be felt for a long while. That stretch of highway is a vital transportation link between Phoenix and Los Angeles. I've driven that stretch in temperatures approaching 120
o(F), without the benefit of air conditioning. I'd hate to think of doing on the back road detours.
One of the most amazing factoids of bob Henson's post is the two-day rainfall in San Diego that was a remnant of TS Dolores:
San Diego’s Lindbergh Field measured a whopping 1.69” on Saturday and Sunday—more rain than in any other July in San Diego records that go back to 1850 (the runner-up was 1.29” in July 1865). Midsummer is typically bone-dry in San Diego, with June through August racking up a combined average of just 0.14”. Amazingly, the past weekend produced more rain in San Diego than the previous 100 Julys combined (1915 – 2014).