• Residents in California have been experiencing the effects of an abnormally wet winter, leading to the eruption of a massive landslide that buried a highway in Plumas County.
• Another atmospheric river is expected to hit Central and Southern California this week, creating potential flooding risks.
• Too much water too fast can overwhelm levees, leading to flooding in downstream communities.
• Landslides have been a risk in Northern and Southern California, with some residents forced to evacuate because of erosion.

A new drone video shows the size of a massive landslide that buried a California highway earlier this month.

California has been hit by an abnormally wet winter, and in addition to torrential rain, several atmospheric rivers, or long, narrow bands of moisture, have dumped excessive precipitation on the state. Although the storms have almost completely remedied the state's drought, Californians are now encountering new threats from floods and landslides.

On Tuesday, the Weather Channel published a drone video showing the magnitude of a landslide in Plumas County in Northern California. In the footage, debris from a nearby hillside covers state Route 70. According to the video, the state's Department of Transportation has closed the highway indefinitely. Consistent dry weather is needed to make the repairs, but more rain is on the way.

Newsweek reached out by phone to the transportation department for comment.

The state's 12th atmospheric river of the season was forecast to hit Central and Southern California through Wednesday. It comes on the heels of two back-to-back atmospheric rivers earlier this month that filled several of the state's reservoirs to capacity, some of which hadn't been full for years.

AccuWeather senior meteorologist Mike Doll told Newsweek that the storm could bring winds up to 80 miles per hour from Monterey Bay south to Santa Barbara County. He said that soil in the area is already moist from former storms, so the risk of falling trees is heightened. Winds will be blowing from the south and southwest, bringing more potential for damage.

"The winds will be different from the prevailing wind direction that this area normally experiences," Doll said. "Our experience with this is that when you start seeing higher winds from a direction that is not the prevailing wind direction, you can get further increase in the risk for trees coming down."

The excess water is good news after a years-long drought that has plagued the state. All of the state has been removed from the extreme and exceptional drought categories by the U.S. Drought Monitor. However, the deluge of water is coming too quickly in some areas. Intense precipitation can stress nearby levees, heightening flood risk. More water is expected to arrive in the spring, as temperatures warm and snowpack begins to melt.

Flooding poses a major concern because too much water too fast can overwhelm levees and barrel toward downstream communities. Earlier this month, the Pajaro River levee ruptured, causing severe flooding in Watsonville, California. Residents in a nearby agricultural community evacuated, but streets, cars, homes, businesses and schools were submerged.

Water management officials recently released thousands of cubic feet of water from Lake Oroville and Folsom Lake to make room for more water as another atmospheric river arrives.

Landslides have accompanied the atmospheric rivers. Flooding can erode the landscape and cause devastating landslides that bury infrastructure, such as the highway in Northern California.

Residents in Southern California have also experienced landslides. People recently had to evacuate their oceanside homes in Buena Vista because torrential rain caused the hill beneath them to erode, according to a report in The Guardian.

Update, 3/21/23, 1:06 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with comments from AccuWeather senior meteorologist Mike Doll.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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