Despite sunny days SSU students recall recent storm

COOPER PERRY STAFF WRITER

Throughout the first three weeks of the new year, Northern California saw a barrage of heavy rain and high wind speeds that triggered flood warnings for Sonoma County and much of the state. According to the Press Democrat, some parts of Sonoma County got over 33 inches of rain over a 23day period, from Dec. 26, 2022 to Jan. 17.

Sonoma State University freshman and geology major, Peter Xiao, was on campus throughout the duration of the storm. He recounted that “once, near the campus garden, a large branch got ripped off by the wind and the sharp end almost struck my face.” He added, “it took like less than a week for a whole big cafeteria garbage bin to be filled up with rainwater.”

The sudden onset of these storms was caused by several atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones. As their names would suggest, atmospheric rivers are narrow streams in the sky containing large amounts of water vapor, which are crucial for California’s rainfall every year. Bomb cyclones are another type of tropical storm event similar to hurricanes, caused by the collision of warm and cold air. However, unlike hurricanes, bomb cyclones generate the worst weather at the edges of the storm instead of toward the center.

Charles Bottino, a senior geography major at SSU, recalled waking up to see the flooding of his friend’s house. “The creek had started to breach the slates on the deck of the bottom story. My bandmate was swimming in about three feet of water trying to save his potted plant below. Within an hour, the water was entering the bottom story and we had to move everything upstairs.”

At the time, there were no prior flood warnings issued in the area, but Charles and his friends were evacuated by the housing management shortly after. Charles added, “that was the highest the creek had gotten on the property since it was built in the 1970’s”, and the entire bottom story must be renovated as a result of the damage.

The flooding caused by heavy rain and overflowing reservoirs led to many mudslides across the state, totaling over 300 over a two-week period since New Year’s Eve, according to an article by NPR. Much of California is prone to mudslides due to its relatively young mountains and drought conditions. The drought has caused the sediment to become too dry and decreased its permeability, letting the water run off easily, and pulling dirt and debris with it downhill.

In addition, areas with wildfire damage such as Sonoma County are more vulnerable to mudslides. This was seen in the Montecito mudslides of 2018 that came shortly after a large wildfire swept through the town.

Sonoma State Professor of geography, environment, and planning, Tom Robinson told us, “From a hazard reduction

Seawolves join together and sip tea while interviewing President Mike Lee.

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Sonoma’s softball team was able to win 2 of their 3 games this weekend.