WEBVTT

1
00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.310
- [Angely Mercado] The
U.S. kicked off 2023

2
00:00:02.310 --> 00:00:03.810
with some pretty extreme weather.

3
00:00:03.810 --> 00:00:05.100
Since late December,

4
00:00:05.100 --> 00:00:08.640
the first of several atmospheric
rivers reached California.

5
00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:09.847
And if you're asking yourself,

6
00:00:09.847 --> 00:00:11.490
"What is an atmospheric river?"

7
00:00:11.490 --> 00:00:15.240
Think of it as narrow
strips of the atmosphere,

8
00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.840
and it holds huge amounts of
water vapor, hence the river.

9
00:00:18.840 --> 00:00:21.510
And what happens when
that vapor reaches a land?

10
00:00:21.510 --> 00:00:23.400
It creates a downpour.

11
00:00:23.400 --> 00:00:25.890
And so California has seen torrential rain

12
00:00:25.890 --> 00:00:28.680
and tons of snow all
over its mountain ranges.

13
00:00:28.680 --> 00:00:30.870
On the bright side, this has alleviated

14
00:00:30.870 --> 00:00:33.330
some of the drought
conditions in the state.

15
00:00:33.330 --> 00:00:34.710
But don't get me wrong,

16
00:00:34.710 --> 00:00:37.020
this doesn't mean that
it's deleted drought

17
00:00:37.020 --> 00:00:38.820
completely from California's map.

18
00:00:38.820 --> 00:00:40.590
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor,

19
00:00:40.590 --> 00:00:43.290
sometime last fall, a
lot of central California

20
00:00:43.290 --> 00:00:45.360
actually saw exceptional
drought conditions,

21
00:00:45.360 --> 00:00:46.560
and that is actually

22
00:00:46.560 --> 00:00:48.750
the highest category
of drought on the map.

23
00:00:48.750 --> 00:00:50.340
But as of early January,

24
00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:53.520
there were no exceptional
drought conditions in California.

25
00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:55.980
However, the state is still kind of dry.

26
00:00:55.980 --> 00:00:58.380
A lot of California is still experiencing

27
00:00:58.380 --> 00:01:00.480
some extreme and severe drought.

28
00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:02.730
But this is a naturally arid state.

29
00:01:02.730 --> 00:01:05.550
They struggled to deal with
the onslaught of precipitation.

30
00:01:05.550 --> 00:01:08.100
Throughout the first
and second week of 2023,

31
00:01:08.100 --> 00:01:09.630
communities all over the state

32
00:01:09.630 --> 00:01:11.790
have had to deal with
things like mudslides,

33
00:01:11.790 --> 00:01:12.990
and rockslides so bad

34
00:01:12.990 --> 00:01:14.820
that they temporarily shut down roads,

35
00:01:14.820 --> 00:01:17.460
cars actually being
swallowed up by sinkholes,

36
00:01:17.460 --> 00:01:20.580
and highways that looked
like they had become rivers.

37
00:01:20.580 --> 00:01:21.810
Communities throughout the state

38
00:01:21.810 --> 00:01:23.760
have also had to open up shelters

39
00:01:23.760 --> 00:01:25.470
to support vulnerable residents.

40
00:01:25.470 --> 00:01:28.590
And as of this week, a reported 19 people

41
00:01:28.590 --> 00:01:30.450
have died during the weeks of storming.

42
00:01:30.450 --> 00:01:33.660
Had this been just one storm,
California would've been fine.

43
00:01:33.660 --> 00:01:36.540
But there was so much heavy
precipitation events in a row,

44
00:01:36.540 --> 00:01:39.030
and that's something that
the historically dry West

45
00:01:39.030 --> 00:01:40.620
is not used to at all.

46
00:01:40.620 --> 00:01:42.270
Thanks for watching "Extreme Earth".

47
00:01:42.270 --> 00:01:44.190
We're sorry that we have
to constantly remind you

48
00:01:44.190 --> 00:01:45.393
about all of this.