Nothing tropical about this! First of two Pineapple Express winter storms inundates California with twenty seven times more water than entire Mississippi, as Golden State is hit by rain, snow and heavy winds

Heavy rain flooded California roads and much-needed snow piled up in the mountains as the first of successive atmospheric rivers lashed the state on Thursday.

This week his ‘Pineapple Express’ — so named because the plume of moisture, enough to carry more than 27 times more water than the Mississippi River, extends across the Pacific Ocean to near Hawaii — will be followed by an even more powerful storm on Sunday, forecasters said.

The storm was expected to bring 10 inches of rain and 75 mph winds, putting 22 million people under flood warnings.

Videos showed several areas in Los Angeles and San Diego inundated with rain and flooding throughout Thursday, while those in the Sierra Nevada faced treacherous roads with blizzard-like snow conditions.

The storm focused its energy on the southern and eastern parts of the state after initially hitting the San Francisco Bay Area on Wednesday, where cable car service was suspended.

Showers began in Northern California on Wednesday, drenching the area with as much as eight inches of rain. Fox again reported.

The downpours arrived in Southern California on Thursday in time to disrupt the morning commute.

An atmospheric river, a long band of moisture that forms over the Pacific Ocean, fueled the storms that swamped the Los Angeles and San Diego areas, said Bob Oravec, a National Weather Service forecaster.

Atmospheric rivers “typically form ahead of cold fronts across the Pacific,” he said. “And when they interact with the topography of the West Coast, you often get very heavy rainfall, both along the coastal areas and inland through the Sierras.”

Atmospheric rivers are defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as “narrow regions of the atmosphere that transport much of the moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes.”

The weather phenomenon is known as ‘Pineapple Express’ because it brings warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific Ocean from near Hawaii.

In Costa Mesa, a canal filled with rainwater leads to the rescue of a man trapped in the swift water. The crew had to lower a boat into the water and use rope harnesses to reach the victim.

The person was taken to the hospital in stable condition, according to the Orange County Fire Department.

They have no insurance and rely on donations from family, friends and neighbors. He said he is still grateful because his parents survived and are now safe at his home in an area less prone to flooding.

Last winter, California was ravaged by many drought-breaking atmospheric rivers causing extensive flooding, large waves that ravaged coastline communities and extraordinary snowfalls that crushed buildings. More than twenty people died.

The California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services activated its operations center and placed personnel and equipment in areas most at risk.

Brian Ferguson, the agency’s deputy director of crisis communications, characterized the situation as “a significant threat to the safety of Californians.”

He said an area from the Oregon state line all the way south to San Diego and from the coast into the mountains could be affected over the next 10 to 14 days.

“This is really a broad area of ​​California that will see threats over the next week,” Ferguson said.

A 100-foot-tall redwood tree fell in the Silicon Valley city of Saratoga on Wednesday, crashing into a car and trapping a girl inside. according to KNTV. She was freed by the fire brigade and suffered only minor injuries.

We were very lucky,” Matt Mokhtarian, captain of the Santa Clara County Fire Department, told the TV station. “In this scenario, it’s just a matter of feet.”

On Thursday, southern Los Angeles County was hit hard by flash flooding. Vehicles plowed through water on low-lying sections of highways and at least one underpass under a railroad crossing in Long Beach flooded, leaving a car submerged.

Seal Beach, south of Los Angeles, saw flooding along the Pacific Coast Highway on Thursday, closing parts of the highway at times and leaving a white van stranded at an intersection.

The fire brigade also rescued a man trapped on a small island in the Santa Ana riverbed, surrounded by rushing water. A paramedic had to be brought down by helicopter to get the man to safety.

The Mammoth Mountain ski area in the Sierra Nevada reported 12 to 12 inches of snow overnight.

Earlier this week, state officials reported that the vital Sierra snowpack, which normally supplies about 30% of California’s water, had been damaged. far below normal.

Heavy snow was also reported in the mountains east of Los Angeles.

A winter storm warning was in effect through Friday morning for a nearly 300-mile stretch of the Sierra, from northern Lake Tahoe to southern Yosemite National Park, the weather service office in Reno, Nevada, said.

In some areas, snow could fall at speeds of up to two inches per hour, with wind gusts of up to 100 miles per hour, forecasters say.

The second atmospheric river, which is expected to flow in late Saturday, is already forecast to be “the largest storm of the season,” according to the National Weather Service.

The worst part of the storm will occur Sunday through Monday as it lingers over Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.

“This system will likely produce 24 to 36 hours (or more) of persistent rain,” the weather service wrote in a forecast update Thursday.

Then, Monday through Wednesday, significant rain and, at higher elevations, snow are expected to fall in Southern California, which could cause mudslides and dangerous flooding.