SMOKE SIGNAL THE

CA Winter Storms

In recent weeks, CA has faced a string of successive storms, resulting in high winds, landslides, and floods that have ravaged communities across the state, with more than half the students at MSJ surveyed personally a ected. The Smoke Signal investigated the causes of this year’s unusual weather, surveyed student’s about the storm’s e ects, and explored the impacts of the event on the MSJ community.

MSJ Campus Impact

Though most of the storms occurred during Winter Break, they still left considerable impacts on the MSJ campus. Several classrooms, such as M-2 and M-5, and the BTQ faced flooding problems as students returned from break, prompting the school to move classes to di erent rooms and work to unclog drains that were causing the water to pool. In addition, one of the Mission Creek bridges, a popular spot for students to be dropped o and picked up, was washed away, resulting in both parents and students having to take detours to cross the creek. This, along with fallen trees, major tra c delays, power outages, and travel plan changes over break, greatly a ected both students and faculty. According to a student-wide survey, around 90% of students aren’t even aware of whether MSJ has the preparations necessary to combat the storms. “I’ve been in Mission for [11 years], I have never seen flooding like [this]” Campus Supervisor Jan Wren said.

By Sarah Hu, Vidyuth Sridhar, Annie Xu & Lucy Yao Staff Writers

“I wish the community (school) would deal with the storms better because it’s unrealistic to expect everyone to get to school on time when it’s extremely rainy. Also, most of the students eat lunch outside where it is very cold and wet and there isn’t enough space indoors to let everyone eat lunch inside.” — Isabelle Fu, 11

Causes

The recent storms are the result of a series of atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions of water vapor that cause large amounts of rain and snowfall as they reach the West Coast. The atmospheric rivers are thought to extend from the Pineapple Express, a term coined for a recurring atmospheric river originating in Hawaii. For the last two years, a high-pressure system in the Northern Pacific had blocked storms from reaching CA. However, this year they shifted east and blew the rivers towards the state. In addition, a rapid drop in air pressure caused a “bomb cyclone” and high winds and heavy rain across CA during the week of January 1. Meteorologists have not yet pinpointed a direct cause to the unusual storms, though they warn that climate change and atmospheric heating create more intense and variable weather patterns.

“We are doing maintenance on the roofs … to help prevent future [classroom] leaks and things like that, so yes we are working to help keep our campus safe.” — Assistant

Principal Bridget Medrano

“I’d gotten trapped in Fremont because the roadways were pretty impassable and they wanted Santa Cruz residents to shelter in place … and then I have friends that had to evacuate, and they're either back or their places are flooded … so it's just really sad to hear the stories and see what's happened to the town and not know how long it's gonna take to get everything back the way it should be.” —

English Teacher Nina LaRosa

“I think we can pretty much improve on everything because we haven’t dealt with [the storms] so everything here is a learning process. For example, we probably have to make our water drainage better because all the roads are pretty wet and that stopped me from going to practice a few times.” — Arav Tyagi, 10

MSJ Traffic Impact

The storms also hampered tra c at MSJ, lengthening many students’ commutes due to a backlog of cars and pedestrians. “We would get stuck in the drive-through for more than 10 minutes, and we’d get home much later than usual,” Sophomore Aanya Bachamada said.

MSJ’s 35 tra c team volunteers also faced additional challenges protecting themselves and students from hasty drivers due to the intense rainfall and low visibility. “We had to do a lot of prep work before, like getting all my volunteers equipped with tra c vests which are bright-colored, and making sure the raincoats and all the tra c signs are clearly visible,” Mission Possible Parent and Faculty Association Vice President of Tra c and Safety Sangeeta Khandelwal said. “I also had to train them a little di erently because as this is the high school everybody comes in a little late [during the rain] – everybody is in a rush.”

“The big overarching issue is, you know, climate change, how is that coming about and how have humans been connected to it. I think that we need to really start to tackle those problems more than they have been tackled already and come up with di erent ways of producing energy aside from fossil fuels. That’s gonna be what stops the problem from continuing to accelerate.”

— History Teacher Toby Remmers

CA & Bay Area Impact

Initially, most CA residents expected the week of rain to just be a routine winter storm. But when San Francisco logged its second wettest day since 1994, which was just 0.08 inches behind the record, it was clear this was much larger than what many had anticipated. For example, Northern CA saw major highway and road closures due to the mass flooding, landslides, and collapsed trees. “There are a lot of smaller scale incidents in Santa Cruz and all the way across the bay where the infrastructure was the real problem. You could have prevented the flooding, you could have prevented the power outages had there been more money spent on preparing for that kind of thing,” History Teacher Toby Remmers said. The storms also altered many people’s transportation plans going to and from the Bay Area. For example, there were 95 flight cancellations and 424 delays at San Francisco International Airport on January 4 alone.

In addition, more than a dozen schools in San Mateo and at least six statewide parks were partially or fully closed from fears of being flooded. High winds brought power and internet outages that impacted more than 180,000 homes and businesses. Furthermore, according to the Los Angeles Times, at least 22 people statewide have died since Dec. 26, 2022 due to the e ects of the storms. “We’ve had less people die in the last two years of major wildfires in California than have died since New Year’s Day related to this weather,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a news conference on January 10.

“Previously I got to school by bike but after break [and the storms], my family had to arrange carpools with neighbors, which was a bit of a hassle.”

— Anonymous Survey Re-

Long-Term Effects

The storms’ impact on the three year-long drought is still unclear. Most of the state’s water reservoirs have begun to fill, especially in harder-hit regions like Sierra Nevada and Sacramento. However, precipitation from the atmospheric rivers has been uneven, with the Bay Area receiving less rain overall compared to areas in central and southern CA. “Those biggest reservoirs are just so massive it is probably going to take a while for them to fill ... it may take five or six drenchings,” Hydrometeorologist David Gochis said in an interview with Al Jazeera. Despite the heavy rainfall, as of January 13, Fremont is still in a “moderate drought,” per the US Drought Monitor.

Safety Measures

To protect Californians from the storms, the CA Department of Water Resources encourages residents to remain alert for evacuation alerts and other emergency notifications. The department urges people to take action to evacuate as soon as possible if there is a notice of evacuation since flash flooding can happen rapidly. Families should also create an evacuation plan and have a flashlight on hand for electricity outages. In addition, they advise residents to limit their travels and check the weather forecasts prior to traveling. To prevent flooding around neighborhoods, the department advises to keep all gutters and inlets, channels, and pipes clear to allow fast water drainage. For more tips and county alerts, sign up at CalAlerts.org.