Parts of Southern California have experienced record rainfall this past week after two atmospheric rivers hit the region.
As clouds began to lift, new projections from a modeling company provided a visual representation of the scale of the flooding.
Floodbase projections show dramatic differences in accumulated water between the end of January and this week.
Below is greater Los Angeles on January 28 (left) and February 6 (right). On January 28, much of the water is dark blue, indicating permanent water.
On February 6, light blue flood water surrounds waterways such as the Los Angeles River and can be seen pooling at the base of the Santa Monica and Verdugo Mountains.
Public satellites have not yet flown over areas affected by the storm, and private satellites have only targeted a few areas, said Floodbase co-founder Bessie Schwarz.
The Floodbase data “simulates what satellites would have seen,” he said.
Floodbase uses an AI model trained on decades of satellite imagery, along with physical models of hydrological, land surface and hydraulic data to predict what a satellite would see through the clouds.
According to the images, the flooding peaked in Los Angeles on February 6, while in Santa Barbara County it was more significant the day before.
The image below uses the same methodology to show flooding in Santa Barbara County on January 28 (left) and again on February 5 (right).
On January 28, data shows modest flooding near Lompoc and some water in the Santa Ynez Mountains.
On February 6, the dry river beds passing through Lompoc and Santa Maria were severely flooded. The mountains above Santa Barbara were also flooded.
Last week's atmospheric river storms killed at least nine people and caused significant flooding and property damage along the California coast.
After four days of rain, the skies were clearing Wednesday morning, leaving officials and property owners surveying the damage caused by nearly 500 landslides in Los Angeles County alone. Several locations received more than a foot of rain in just a few days. Another drop of rain was expected Wednesday night.
