A major winter storm moved across the Pacific Ocean into Northern California on Wednesday and was expected to pummel the state with torrential rainfall, high winds and dangerous heavy surf over the next few days, the National Weather Service said.
Authorities issued flood warnings, high surf and wind advisories ahead of the storm and said they feared that predicted heavy showers could cause mudslides in wildfire scarred foothills across the state.
"As far as serious debris flows this is probably the biggest threat we've seen so far this winter on the burn areas, just because the rainfall has the potential to be so intense in such a short period of time. That's what we've seen in the past is most conducive to debris flows," National Weather Service meteorologist Mark Jackson said.