Pineapple Express brings rain, snow and winds to US West Coast, including California

Friday, February 15, 2019

Pineapple express brings heavy rain, wind, snow and flooding to the West Coast over the next few days and a trail of destruction. No, pineapple express is not a train nor the comedy film. A pineapple express, which is also known as a moisture river or atmospheric river, is a narrow corridor of concentrated moisture in the upper atmosphere. As the series of storms originates in the Hawaiian Islands, it pulls in a significant amount of moisture from the Pacific Ocean and carries it to the West Coast.

It has forced hundreds of Californians to evacuate their homes; submerged cars into water and left the vineyards flooded. More than 30 million people are under flood or flash flood watches from California to Arizona, including in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. The heavy rain poses a risk of mudslides and flooding in areas already devastated by last year’s wildfires.

In the south, the rainfall has led to flooded streets in Fontana in San Bernardino County. In Northern California’s Shasta County, where both a flood watch and winter storm warning are in effect, residents are being urged not to travel because of falling trees and downed power lines.

About 23,000 of the state’s 102,000 power outages were in Shasta County as of Thursday afternoon.

The strongest wind gusts have been recorded at 75 mph in the Mount St. Helena area, as per National Weather Service. In wind-prone areas, gusts as high as 90 mph are expected.

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