California doused by atmospheric river but spared major damage

By Daniel Trotta

(Reuters) - An atmospheric river pounded California with thunderstorms and hail on Monday but spared the state major damage as there were no tornadoes which had been forecast as a possibility.

Packing gusty winds, the storms knocked out power for more than 11,000 customers, according to PowerOutage.us, flooded roads, knocked down trees and shut down Santa Barbara airport for the day, officials said.

As of 5 p.m. (0100 GMT), the 24-hour rainfall totals topped out around 3 to 4 inches (7.6 to 10 cm) in areas below Mount Shasta, one of California's tallest peaks at 14,180 feet (4,322 m).

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The National Weather Service in Sacramento issued a tornado warning for parts of Plumas County and Butte County in the state's north, but as of Monday evening the worst those areas received was hail and heavy thunderstorms, meteorologist Jeffrey Wood said.

More significant damage was still possible as heavy rains were expected to douse much of northern California into Tuesday and southern California into Wednesday.

Los Angeles County could receive 3 to 5 inches of rain in the mountains and foothills, the weather service said.

Even so, the effects appeared to be far less significant than that from another atmospheric river two weeks ago that dumped up to a year's worth of precipitation in some areas, knocked out power to nearly 1 million customers and killed nine people.

After historic precipitation a year ago effectively ended the state's severe drought, California is again experiencing a wet year.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday declared a major disaster over severe storms that flooded the San Diego area in January, freeing up federal assistance to supplement state and local recovery efforts. Those rains killed three people and damaged more than 800 homes, the office of California Governor Gavin Newsom said.

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(Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Carlsbad, California; Editing by Gerry Doyle and Sonali Paul)