A slow-moving atmospheric river megastorm that first impacted the Bay Area, Sacramento Valley, and the Central Coast of California on Saturday worked its way down the state over the weekend, leaving a windy, wet path of destruction in its wake. According to the Los Angeles Times, the storm has caused two deaths thus far, along with flooding, mudslides and damage to power lines that have led to widespread outages. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow areas in the atmosphere that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). When these rivers make landfall, they usually release this water vapor as rain or snow. The rivers that contain the most water vapor and strongest winds can cause massive amounts of destruction when they stall over watersheds that are already vulnerable to flooding. The storm stalled over the Los Angeles metropolitan area on Sunday, creating what the NWS called "one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory." As of Monday, the NWS reported the main band of steady rain had decreased in intensity, but that it remained straddling Los Angeles and Orange Counties. The area of Hollywood Hills and the Santa Monica Mountains experienced flash flooding as well as dangerous landslides, with the NWS Los Angeles warning on X (formerly Twitter) early Monday morning that an "extremely dangerous situation" was unfolding in the area. The NWS Weather Prediction Center released a short-range forecast on Monday morning warning that "life threatening" flash flooding was expected to continue in Southern California into Tuesday, with an additional 5-8 inches possible throughout the day. This additional rainfall could bring 48-hour totals in some areas to as much as 8-14 inches. As of Monday, the LA Times reports the areas in Los Angeles County that have seen the highest rain totals as a result of this storm include the Santa Monica Mountains (10.67 inches), Bel-Air (10.46 inches), Sepulveda Pass (10.28 inches) and Brentwood (9.9 inches), with areas with higher elevations seeing the highest totals. In addition to staggering rainfall in some areas of the state, this storm system also caused blizzard-like conditions in areas of higher elevation with winds gusts over 160 mph recorded. An early estimate from AccuWeather predicts total damage and economic loss from the storms California has experienced over the last week could total $9 billion to $11 billion. California Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency for eight California counties, including Los Angeles and San Diego.

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