Bomb cyclone dishes out a deluge across Folsom, Sac County

It was referred to as an incoming "bomb cyclone" that became a storm of the century and broke all-time single-day rainfall records in the region while bringing localized flooding and snow to the Sierra over the weekend. While it can't fix the dismal lake levels in just one blow, the weekend storm certainly made a change in a positive direction, putting Folsom Lake on the rise once again. As of Tuesday, data shows that Folsom Lake's storage increased by 62,000 acre feet over the previous day. The surge is a welcome sight for residents and officials alike who have been watching numbers go lower each and every day since mid-summer. The lake has now inched back up to 31 percent of capacity and 71 percent of normal this time of year. Meanwhile, the inflow has surged to more than 31,000 cubic feet per second, after being in the mid one-hundreds in previous weeks. On Sunday alone, the Sacramento region saw the most rainfall on a single calendar day ever in its history, with nearly six inches of rain. That amount of rainfall is comparable to what is normally achieved over a three month period early in the season. While the rainfall totals at the lower elevations are impressive, it is the Sierra snowfall that paints the bigger picture as to what lies ahead in the battle against the drought. "The recent weather has been refreshing and much-needed for the state," said David Rizzardo, hydrology section manager with the California Department of Water Resources. "We need a series of storms — quite a few this year — in good amounts that we can handle and that would be the ideal situation." The weekend storms brought the much needed rainfall but with it came a hearty serving of local flooding that kept local agencies busy responding to needs in the community and closing down flooded roadways. Just a few of the significant closures included Duchow Way in Folsom where flooding shut down the roadway as early as Friday night. Folsom-Auburn Road was closed between Blue Ravine and Parkshore for flooding, as was Sibley Street from Blue Ravine to Levy Road where Willow Creek outgrew its banks during the downpour. Lauren Ono, public information officer for Folsom Fire Department, reported that the department and the CERT team responded to approximately 47 weather- related calls in a 24-hour operational period during the storm. The figures are nearly twice the amount of normal calls for a shift. "The most significant call was for a tree that blew into a house, " said Ono. "Our biggest asset that day was our volunteer CERT team. They came in and assisted with traffic control, patrolling, and even went out and cleared over 200 drains." Sunday saw the heaviest rainfall and runoff and was the busiest day for Folsom Police when it came to assisting with storm-related calls. Detective Melanie Catanio told the Telegraph that the department's communication center fielded a high volume of 149 calls between 1:30 p.m. and 10:45 p.m. Sunday. The department facilitated many area road closures and was busy issuing community alerts to keep residents informed. Between 1 a.m. Sunday and 1 a.m. Monday, the weather service station in Sacramento had collected 5.44 inches, drowning the April 1880 record of 5.28 inches In a single day, the Sacramento region received more than 80 percent of the rainfall it received overall for the 2020-21 water year. Records were also broken in the Sierra with Blue Canyon receiving 10.40 inches of rain before the snowfall even began. Localized rainfall totals show that Folsom alone received 4.10 inches of rain, collected at the lake station, El Dorado Hills was dealt 7.30 inches of rain, Orangevale 6.50 and Sloughouse 5.66. Traveling over the mountain, Lake Tahoe received 4.88 inches of rain, enough to bring the lake level back to its original rim level. The 30-year average for the water year, which started Oct. 1, is calculated to an average of 19.20 inches, meaning at this point the region is a third of the way to average in just one weekend with the new snowpack accumulating as well.