California weather live updates: ‘Pineapple Express’ slams West Coast with heavy rain and wind

Despite the strong winds and heavy rain in Los Angeles brought on by the Pineapple Express storm, surfers braved the conditions to hit the waves on Thursday morning.

Famous tourist hotspot Venice Beach, which usually sees thousands of people and vendors passing through, was shuttered and quiet, as gusts battered the boardwalk.

Only a handful of thrill-seekers remained, delighting in the waves – which reached up to six feet. Among them was Ian Dell, who described the outing as “a regular Tuesday”.

The Independent’s Mike Bedigan reports:

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminstration (NOAA), atmospheric rivers are narrow regions in the atmosphere that transport much of the moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes. The weather systems are part of the Earth’s ocean water cycle, and are tied closely to both water supply and flood risks.

A well-known example of a strong atmospheric river is called the “Pineapple Express” – predicted to soon hit California – because moisture builds up in the tropical Pacific around Hawaii and can wallop the U.S. and Canada’s West Coasts with heavy rainfall and snow.

Prevailing winds cross over warm bands of tropical water vapor to form a “river,” which travels across the Pacific as part of the global conveyor belt. When it reaches the west coast, the Pineapple Express can dump as much as five inches of rain on California in one day.

According to NOAA, atmospheric rivers come in all shapes and sizes, but those that contain the largest amounts of water vapor and the strongest winds are responsible for extreme rainfall and subsequent flooding. These events can affect the entire west coast of North America, often disrupting travel and damaging property in the process.

Despite the strong winds and heavy rain in Los Angeles, surfers still braved the conditions to hit the waves on Thursday morning.

Among them was Ian Dell, who described the outing as “a regular Tuesday”.“As a lifelong surfer, days like today are what we surfers kinda dig, which is lingo for we crave it, you know?” he told The Independent on the shore of Venice Beach.“

And big waves, slight offshore, side shore winds, those are gifts from Mother Nature so we’re happy about it and especially if you surf here in southern California in the Santa Monica Bay there’s usually hundreds of surfers out there.

“So on a day like today there’s only like 10 or 12 so that’s a blessing in itself.”

Mr Dell said he had texted a couple of my friends before heading to the beach and knew the majority of those already in the water.

“We surf here every day or every other day and there’s probably gonna be people here from other beaches because it’s good here today.”

A massive atmospheric river known as a “Pineapple Express” was barrelling towards the US West Coast on Wednesday, with torrential rain and powerful winds raising the threat of heavy flooding and landslides.

The “Pineapple Express” – so called because it originates near Hawai’i in the tropical Pacific – is the first of two systems to hit the region in the coming days.

Excessive rainfall is expected from the southern Oregon coast down through central California on Wednesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) reported. Up to three inches of rain is expected in the Sacramento Valley.

The atmospheric river is expected to hit California in two parts.

The National Weather Service (NWS) predicts that the first storm will affect the region Thursday.

According to the forecaster the second storm system is expected to reach Southern California sometime on Sunday, beginning a “lengthy storm cycle’’ that could bring widespread rain totals of two to four inches in lower elevations, and possibly twice as much in south-facing mountains.

More than 20 million Californians are under weather alerts.

Earlier on Wednesday, the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services activated its operations center and positioned personnel and equipment in areas most at risk from the weather as the first of two atmospheric river storms hit the state.

Brian Ferguson, California OES deputy director of crisis communications, characterized the situation as “a significant threat to the safety of Californians” with concerns for impact over 10 to 14 days from the Oregon line to San Diego and from the coast up into the mountains.

“This really is a broad sweep of California that’s going to see threats over the coming week,” Mr Ferguson said.

The “Pineapple Express” — so-called because its long plume of moisture stretched back across the Pacific to near Hawaii — will be followed by an even more powerful storm on Sunday, forecasters said.

The second storm in the series has the potential to be much stronger, said Daniel Swain a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Models suggest it could intensify as it approaches the coast of California, a process called bombogenesis in which a spinning low-pressure system rapidly deepens, Swain said in an online briefing Tuesday. The process is popularly called a “cyclone bomb.”

That scenario would create the potential for a major windstorm for the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of Northern California as well as heavy but brief rain, Swain said.