The latest in a series of winter storms poured more rain and caused landslides in the Bay Area

The latest in a three-week series of severe winter storms blew through California on Monday, making driving dangerous in the mountains and high risk of flooding near swollen rivers, even as the sun came out in some areas.

Heavy snow fell in the Sierra Nevada and travel was advised against by the National Weather Service. Interstate 80, a key highway from the San Francisco Bay Area to the ski resorts at Lake Tahoe, has reopened as per network requirements after intermittent weekend closures due to power outages.

“If you must travel, be prepared for hazardous travel conditions, significant travel delays and road closures,” the Sacramento weather service said in a statement. Twitter.

The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab said Monday morning that it had recorded 49.6 inches (126 cm) of new snow since Friday.

A remote area avalanche warning has been issued for the central Sierra, including the Greater Tahoe area.

A series of nine atmospheric river storms have brought rain and snow to California since late December, cutting off thousands of electrical power, flooding roads, downing trees, unleashing mudslides and causing landslides. Monday’s system was relatively weak compared to earlier storms, but risks of flooding and mudslides remained because the condition was so saturated, forecasters said.

The sun has come out in San Francisco, where 20.3 inches (51.5 cm) of rain has fallen at the city’s airport since October 1, when California’s annual rainfall record usually begins. The annual average for the “water year” is 19.6 inches (49.8 cm), “so we’ve outperformed the annual for 8 more months,” the San Francisco Weather Service said in a statement. tweeted.

Up to 2 inches of rain fell Sunday in the soaking Sacramento Valley, where residents of Wilton and nearby communities were warned to prepare to leave if the Cosumnes River rises further.

The flooded Salinas River flooded farmland in Monterey County. To the east, a flood warning was in place for Merced County in the agricultural Central Valley, which Gov. Gavin Newsom visited on Saturday.

Newsom signed an executive order Monday to further strengthen the state’s response to the storm and help communities affected by the disaster. President Joe Biden declared a major statewide disaster and ordered federal assistance to supplement local recovery efforts.

Meteorologist Kari Hall details possible storms and drought trends in the microclimate forecast.

The sun was shining in Southern California in Los Angeles, but winter storm warnings and advisories were still in effect in mountainous areas where many roads remained impassable due to mud and rock slides. Two northbound lanes of Interstate 5 near Castaic in northern Los Angeles County were closed indefinitely after a hillside collapse.

Downtown Los Angeles received a record 4.6 cm of rain on Saturday, according to the weather service.

At least 20 people died in the storm and a 5-year-old boy went missing after flood waters tossed him out of his mother’s car in San Luis Obispo County.

Dry days are expected in California this week starting Tuesday.