This much precipitation is very unusual at one time for California

It is not normal to receive heavy rains for long periods of time here in California. Usually in a storm we will receive 20 minutes to and hour or two of really heavy rain and the rest will be fairly light for a day or so.

However, this present storm is so heavy it reminds me of when I lived in Hawaii when the drops are very big (not the little ones we are used to here in California). This creates the paved and dirt roads into rivers when you have this much rain come down for hours now (since last night some time) it has been raining really hard pretty much non-stop. So, this is troubling because we have a lot of extreme elevations in this state. Also, what is troubling is it is raining really high up still to about 6000 to 7000 feet still. This also creates flooding and makes the water less useful than if it were snowpack which would stay and build and slowly come down into the valleys and dams and lakes over the next 8, 10 or even 12 months.

So, because it isn't cold enough to mostly only be snow it is likely going to do a whole lot more damage than it has done already. For example, it has been raining pretty much non-stop and hard where I live for at least 15 to 17 hours. If it was light rain it might be okay because it would have time to run off. However, many areas including towns near where I live now can almost be navigated by Kayaks at this point so it is getting pretty bad here from so much constant heavy rain with really big drops. If we were a flatter place it might be okay but when you drop heavy rain at 6000 feet and then it builds up speed down rivers and waterfalls that weren't there yesterday this does a lot of damage before it gets to sea level and out into the ocean. Also, the ocean is full of trees uprooted by all this and any trash (of any kind that floats in people's yards from everywhere in the state where it has been raining like this. And then huge trees and debris get deposited on the shores and beaches of California, Oregon, And Washington and it gets brown from all the topsoil in the fast moving water on out to sea before the waves bring all or most of the debris that floats back into shores and beaches from Washington, Oregon and California.

Hopefully, the snow level will start dropping to 5000 feet or lower pretty soon so we get something really useful long term from all these rains. Because the soils were already saturated from all the storms before that were much smaller than this one.