All types of floods can occur in California, though 90 percent of them are caused by river flooding in lowland areas. Such flooding generally occurs as a result of excessive rainfall, excessive snowmelt, excessive runoff, levee failure, poor planning or built infrastructure, or a combination of these factors. Below is a list of flood events that were of significant impact to California.
Floodwaters at Nevada City, California in 2017
The remains of the St. Francis Dam and reservoir floor. The dam failed just before midnight on March 12, 1928.
The Los Angeles River overflowing its banks near Griffith Park
Storm path
Russian River (California)
The Russian River is a southward-flowing river that drains 1,485 sq mi (3,850 km2) of Sonoma and Mendocino counties in Northern California. With an annual average discharge of approximately 1,600,000 acre feet (2.0 km3), it is the second-largest river flowing through the nine-county Greater San Francisco Bay Area, with a mainstem 115 mi (185 km) long.
The estuary of the Russian River, north of Bodega Bay
An Autumnal Sunset on the Russian River Evening Glow by William Keith, 1878
The Russian River downstream of Duncans Mills
White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), almost 8 feet (2.4 m) long, caught in 1998 in the Russian River's "Hacienda Hole" in Guerneville, California
