Emergencies
Severe storms hit California
The sun usually shines here on more than 260 days a year. Now it’s raining harder in Los Angeles than it has in many years. photo
© David Crane/The Orange County Register/AP
California is actually known for its sunny weather. However, the state is currently being hit by an unusually high amount of rain. A weather phenomenon with a little-known name is causing chaos.
Heavy rains and strong winds hit parts of the US state California paralyzed and killed several people. Authorities have so far reported three deaths from the storm, as US media consistently reported. Near Sacramento, a man was struck by a falling tree in his yard and later died from his injuries, the Sacramento County coroner’s office said. In the other two cases, two people were fatally injured by falling trees in northern California, reported the US broadcaster CNN, among others. The deaths therefore occurred on Sunday.
The storm, which initially struck the greater San Francisco area, moved further south and reached Santa Barbara and Los Angeles. The heavy rain triggered mudslides, flooded streets and knocked out power supplies. According to the website PowerOutage, hundreds of thousands of households were temporarily without power. The National Weather Service warned of wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour. California Governor Gavin Newsom warned of a “severe storm with dangerous and potentially life-threatening impacts” and declared a state of emergency for several counties.
The reason for the heavy rainfall is a weather phenomenon called “atmospheric river”. According to the German Weather Service, this refers to “a relatively narrow, directed band of moisture-saturated air” with a width of around 500 kilometers and a length of around 2,000 kilometers or more. Such systems transported much of the water vapor outside the tropics. Because the moist air masses that hit California mostly come from the tropical ocean regions in the Pacific region around Hawaii, they are also called the “Pineapple Express.”