Commentary “The Rainmaker” is a fanciful title for a film. Just from the title, it could be about a native witch doctor or perhaps a reference to symbolic precipitation. Nevertheless, this 1956 film starring Katharine Hepburn and Burt Lancaster is set in the United States of America and based on a real person who claimed…

California was hit by another winter storm starting March 20—its 12th since December—adding to more closures and damage for the already water-logged state. In Southern California, a second sinkhole in the courtyard of the Coyote Village condo complex in La Habra, Orange County, continued to cause concern after soggy ground atop a storm channel covered with…

WATSONVILLE, Calif.—Wet, miserable weather continued across huge swaths of California on Sunday as an atmospheric river that caused major flooding flowed eastward, and as a new system threatens the region with another onslaught of rain, snow, and gusting winds as soon as Monday night. The National Weather Service said the next torrent could exacerbate the…

WATSONVILLE, Calif.—A Northern California agricultural community famous for its strawberry crop was forced to evacuate early March 11 after the Pajaro River’s levee was breached by flooding from a new atmospheric river that pummeled the state. Across the Central Coast’s Monterey County, more than 8,500 people were under evacuation orders and warnings Saturday, including roughly…

More than 9,000 people have been ordered to evacuate, and over 54,000 are without power, as parts of California grapple with yet another atmospheric river system. Heavy rain, thunderstorms, and strong winds from the system have resulted in floods in several major highways and small rural communities in the southern and central regions of the state….

President Joe Biden, who was scheduled to visit California next week, granted the storm-weary state an emergency declaration March 10, the second one this year. Gov. Gavin Newsom requested federal assistance as another series of atmospheric river storms began dumping rain and snow across the state. He also advised Californians to prepare emergency supplies as…

California could see large amounts of rainfall during the weekend that could result in floods and threaten the safety of people as well as potentially cause widespread damage to infrastructure. On Friday, over 2,400 miles from California to Hawaii are expected to come under the impact of an atmospheric river, said weather forecasting service AccuWeather….

Forecasters warned Tuesday that much of California may be hit with another “atmospheric river” storm system that will produce heavy rain in some areas that were hit hard by flooding over the past winter. “A persistent series of lows off the northwest Pacific coast and upper-level energy rotating around the trough in place will help…

At least a dozen people in California have died and over 100,000 across the state are suffering outages as the region battles heavy storms, which forecasters predict will continue in the coming days. On Sunday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said that 12 people had died over the past 10 days in the state owing to…

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—California on Sunday braced for more severe weather after a week of torrential downpours and damaging winds killed at least 12 people in the past 10 days and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. Forecasters with the National Weather Service warned that northern and central California were still in…