California

The most significant storm to hit California so far this year lashed the state on Sunday.It’s Monday. Yesterday was a weather day for the record books — and today could be one, too. Plus, the California State Senate has a new leader.Fallen trees in Pleasure Point near Santa Cruz on Sunday.Loren Elliott for The New York TimesIf you’re in California, you’ve probably been through some wild weather over the past 24 hours. The National Weather Service called Sunday “one of the most dramatic weather days in recent memory.”California’s biggest storm so far this year whipped the surf along the coast, sent tree branches skittering through streets and snapped power lines as it pummeled the state. In much of Northern California, the storm’s howling winds seemed to wreak more havoc than the driving rain did: In some areas, gusts reached 88 miles an hour, rivaling those of a Category 1 hurricane.As of 5 a.m. today, more than 560,000 homes and businesses in the state were without power, with the worst outages in the San Joaquin Valley, the Bay Area and the Central Coast. That was down from more 800,000 at 10 p.m. Sunday, as utility crews worked overnight to start getting the lights back on.Forecasters warn that the worst may still be ahead for California. An atmospheric river hovering over the Los Angeles region is expected to bring precipitation to already soaked lowlands and mountains well into this evening, and the rain may continue into tomorrow. A number of roads, especially in canyons around Los Angeles, were affected by mud and rockslides overnight.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

The orange and black insects were classified as endangered in 2022.Monarchs are in serious decline and were classified as endangered in 2022.Karsten Moran for The New York TimesEvery fall, monarch butterflies from west of the Rocky Mountains start arriving in California to wait out the winter.The orange and black insects are closely monitored, because the number of western monarchs that come to California each year has dropped precipitously since the 1980s, when it was common to see millions annually.This past winter, scientists and volunteers went to more than 250 overwintering sites in the state and counted around 233,000 butterflies, a 30 percent drop from the previous winter, according to a report released this week by the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.The decline was probably caused by the severe storms that hit California in the winter of 2022, which may have been too intense for the insects to survive, according to Isis Howard, who coordinates the count for the Xerces Society. That caused the breeding season last year to begin with fewer butterflies, reducing the population that would return in the fall.Monarchs were classified as endangered in 2022. A particularly steep downturn began in the winter of 2018, when about 30,000 monarch butterflies wintered in California, according to Emma Pelton, a monarch conservation biologist with the Xerces Society. Two years later, only 2,000 were counted across the state, and some of the groves that usually attract the most monarchs were devoid of them.“In 2020, the bottom fell out,” Pelton told me. The moment prompted many “existential conversations in the monarch world” about whether the species would ever recover, she said. But in a “somewhat miraculous” turnaround, she added, the monarch population bounced back to around 200,000 in 2021, a figure similar to this week’s count.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

Atkins, the only person since the late 1800s to have held the top positions in both houses of the Legislature, is now running for governor.Toni Atkins, president pro tem of the California Senate, in November. She will step down from her role next week.Gregory Bull/Associated PressFor years, Toni Atkins has been one of the most powerful politicians in California, even though her name is unfamiliar to many people in the state.A state lawmaker for 14 years representing San Diego, Atkins has served as the speaker of the Assembly and, more recently, as president pro tem of the Senate — the first person in more than a century, and the only woman, to have held both of the Legislature’s top positions.During her tenure, she has quietly negotiated eight state budgets and helped enact some of California’s most impactful legislation: Medicaid expansions that extend health insurance to all eligible adults, regardless of immigration status. Laws that increase access to reproductive health care and protect providers after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Free meals for public school students. Tax credits for poor families.Atkins, a Democrat, is leaving the Senate after this year because of term limits, and she is ceding her leadership post next week. Senator Mike McGuire of Healdsburg is expected to succeed her.But her career in politics is hardly over. A few weeks ago, Atkins announced that she would run in 2026 to succeed Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cannot seek a third term.She agreed to an exit interview, and we spoke by phone right around the time she was announcing her campaign for governor. I intended to focus on her political legacy, but we ended up talking mostly about her roots in Appalachia. Here’s our chat, lightly edited.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

The atmospheric rivers could lead to flooding, mudslides and road closures over the next week.The flooded backyard of a house in San Diego last week.Ariana Drehsler for The New York TimesNo matter where you are in California, big storms are headed your way over the next several days. Forecasters are warning of back-to-back atmospheric rivers that could lead to flooding, mudslides and road closures between today and Tuesday.“We could very well receive February’s total normal precipitation within the month’s first five days,” forecasters from the National Weather Service’s office in San Diego wrote early Monday morning.California needs the rain to stave off drought. The state has gotten only about 81 percent of the total average rainfall expected by this time of year, and the snowpack is just 32 percent of average, according to state data. Water levels at reservoirs are still above average for this time of year because of the bounty of rain we received last winter, but they are not nearly as high as they were a year ago.The first storm reached the California coast last night, and it is expected to bring widespread rainfall and gusty winds to Northern California today before tapering off a bit and moving into Southern California tomorrow.It will pack a greater punch in the north than in the south, forecasters told me. Parts of Marin, Sonoma and Napa Counties are expected to get two to four inches of rain, and the Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia Mountains may get six inches, according to Nicole Sarment, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office. The North Coast is expected to get up to five inches of rain today and tomorrow.Flooding is expected in low-lying areas because the soil is already saturated from earlier storms, experts say. Heavy winds may knock down trees and power lines.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More

Readers share what they love about their part of the state.Dusk falling over the Borrego Badlands in Borrega Springs.Mario Tama/Getty ImagesOn a recent short drive from my home in San Francisco, I ended up in Petaluma, where I had as close to a perfect day as possible.I strolled through antique stores, stumbled across a delicious lunch spot and walked along the river that meanders through the historic Sonoma County town. On our way home, my boyfriend and I remarked on just how much wonder seemed to be in our backyards.That appears to be the case in much of California, if my inbox is any indication. Readers have been writing to me recently about what they love most in their part of the state — and why they stay in California despite the high cost of living and what can often feel like a steady drumbeat of natural disasters.You can email me your own California love letter to CAtoday@nytimes.com. I always enjoy reading these messages. I hope you do, too.Here are some examples, lightly edited:“Outside of California, people don’t know much about Davis, but I feel so lucky to live in this hidden gem. We loved bikes before we came, but living in the bicycle capital of America has totally changed us. I now bike everywhere — to work, to dinner, to my daughter’s activities — and the game changer is that I feel completely safe doing so. Throw in the quintessential college town with our farmers’ market, theaters, essential coffee shops, local book and record stores, and plenty of boba tea shops — all within an easy bike ride or walk — and you have a magical place.” — Kari Edison Watkins, Davis“When I was a little girl traveling with my parents from Seattle to Sonoma on Highway 101, I thought the Ukiah Valley and the next one south to Hopland had to be among the most beautiful places on earth. Now, 70 years later, I still think so. It’s hard to believe I am here.” — Leslie H. Smyth, Ukiah ValleyWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?  More