'Pineapple Express' storm slams into the US with millions under flood threat
A vicious “Pineapple Express” storm is slamming into the West Coast resulting in torrential downpours and a flood threat for millions of residents.
Many Californians have enjoyed a milder and dryer start to the year than the rest of the US, which has been marred by storms, blizzards and ice-cold freezes. But this week, two atmospheric river storms are set to drop several inches of rain on the West Coast, starting with three inches of rain on the southern Oregon coast down through central California on Wednesday.
Los Angeles will be drenched with up to four inches of rain on Thursday, the National Weather Service says, with local authorities warning that flash flooding and landslides is a possibility as a result of oversaturated soils. Large sections of California are being placed under flood watch, including San Francisco and San Diego.
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The flood threat covers significant portions of California as two major storms strike in a row (GMA/Twitter)Winds will also reach up to 65 mph in parts of California and down in Texas, while waves along the entire Californian coast could reach up to a whopping 26 feet. Heavy snow is expected in the mountains of California, while Los Angeles would face up to “half an inch of rain an hour”.
Gales, snow and rain to batter country today with 80mph wind gusts
In an update issued this morning, the National Weather Service says there is currently “urban and small stream flooding caused by excessive rainfall” in a “portion of southwest California”. This is resulting in “flooding of roadways, low-lying areas, and poor drainage areas”, including a “widespread ponding of water on roadways”, the agency added.
Heavy snow is expected in the Californian mountains while the rain strikes in the coastal areas (GMA/Twitter)The Los Angeles branch of the service warned people to begin their preparations for both storms, with the first set to last from Wednesday until Thursday, before the second strikes on the weekend. Writing on X, NWS LA said: “Start preparing now. Adjust plans. Grab sandbags. Mountain communities, grab extra supplies in case you are stranded.”
The first storm will then move on eastwards, but that will be far from the end of the misery for California, as a second storm is expected to come crashing into the coast on Sunday. It is likely to be a dry start to the weekend for most California residents before a storm strikes in the San Francisco Bay area on Sunday, before gradually moving southwards over the course of the next two days. “Monday and Tuesday look like drenchers in southern California, really windy,” explained Good Morning America’s Ginger Zee, before warning of the risk of landslides in the areas worst affected by rain.
Violent winds of up to 65 mph could be expected in some patches (GMA/Twitter)The second storm has the potential to be much stronger than the first, according to Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Suffice it to say there will be some flooding in Southern California," he said according to Reuters. "The question is whether it is the unremarkable street flooding we see in any big rainstorm or something considerably more significant than that."
Both the atmospheric river storms are typical elements of the El Nino weather pattern, which is a naturally-occuring deviation in the Pacific jet stream, causing warmer ocean temperatures than usual along the west coasts of North and South America, Swain explained.
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