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After 'bomb cyclone' soaks West Coast, Yosemite Falls roars back to life

"This is such a joy to see," one observer said.
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A powerful storm that drenched the West Coast with record-breaking rainfall and hurricane-force winds triggered landslides, flooded roads and left two people dead in Washington State.

It also resurrected one of California’s most iconic natural features — Yosemite Falls.

Before a "bomb cyclone" slammed into the state Sunday, dropping nearly a foot of rain in some parts of a region strained by a climate change-fueled megadrought, the 2,425-foot falls had all but vanished, as often happens by late summer or fall.

But by Monday, more than six inches of rain had fallen across Yosemite Valley in 36 hours, the park said on Facebook. And the falls roared back to life, as one observer put it on Twitter.

“This is such a joy to see,” one user responded. “I’m so happy to see the water,” added another. “We need it badly.”

Although experts said the storm dropped nowhere near enough water to quench the drought, Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Los Angeles, said it will still reduce its severity in many places, not to mention extinguish the state’s wildfire season.

“Overall it appears that this event was, on a statewide basis, more beneficial than harmful despite its extremity,” he said.