"LOS ANGELES - Flood watch notices were posted across northern and central California for Thursday ahead of an atmospheric river storm expected to douse much of the state with heavy rain, including mountain areas still buried from a near-record snowfall.

The National Weather Service (NWS) issued excessive-rainfall and flood advisories for a wide region encompassing the metropolitan areas around San Francisco Bay and Sacramento, home to some 15 million people.

But smaller, waterfront communities along several major rivers and their tributaries also braced for the possibility of overflowing streams swollen by heavy showers and runoff of melting snow."

Steve Gorman reports for Reuters March 9, 2023. [2]