Highway 70 in Northern California has been closed due to a massive mudslide
On Sunday, multiple mudslides and debris flows closed a stretch of State Route 70 in Butte and Plumas counties, some 170 miles northeast of San Francisco, within the Dixie Fire burn scar.
The highway was closed in the Feather River Canyon, between Jarbo Gap and Greenville, a historic Plumas County town that was consumed by the Dixie Fire in August, as heavy rain soaked the region.
Brandon Clement, a photojournalist, shared spectacular photographs and a drone video of a part of Highway 70 covered in rock and mud near the hamlet of Tobin.
Cal Trans shared photographs of rocks on Highway 70 around 8 miles north of Pulga on Twitter.
A massive storm barreled into Northern California on Sunday, flooding roadways, toppling trees, and unleashing mud flows in regions charred by recent wildfires in the state’s north.
Rain and high gusts followed the arrival of an atmospheric river — a long and wide plume of moisture drawn in from the Pacific Ocean — during the weekend.
The meteorological service’s Sacramento office predicted debris flows in recent burn scars, particularly on steep hillsides, on Sunday.
A debris flow is a flowing mass of loose mud, sand, soil, rock, and water that is propelled down a slope by gravity. A debris flow can completely destroy homes and cars in its path. Areas that have recently been scorched by wildfires are especially vulnerable to flash floods and debris flows during rainstorms.
A flash flood and debris flow warning was issued for the Dixie Fire zone on Sunday morning. “Heavy rain is starting to move in and this will cause debris flows within the Dixie Fire,” the weather service’s Sacramento office reported about 6 a.m. Rainfall rates of up to an inch per hour are forecast through 3 a.m. Monday, according to the advisory.
This summer, the Dixie Fire spread over five counties — Butte, Plumas, Lassen, Shasta, and Tehama — covering about one million acres and becoming the second largest wildfire in California history.