The first of two severe storms due to an atmospheric river drenched California on Thursday, bringing an intense downpour that flooded roads and toppled trees while officials warned residents to prepare for a “significant threat” as another storm looms over the weekend.
The fast-moving storm kicked off with heavy rain and gusty winds that hit the San Francisco Bay Area and then moved south, arriving in Los Angeles in time to snarl the Thursday morning commute and cause flooding.
An Atmospheric River is headed toward California tomorrow 🚨 pic.twitter.com/U62Eav8Zj3
— BAY AREA STATE OF MIND (@YayAreaNews) January 31, 2024
Forecasters had warned that the river of rain would largely take aim at southern California on Thursday.
The Los Angeles and San Diego areas will be in the bull’s-eye for heavy rain on Thursday, “especially for some of the higher elevations where they tend to get most of the rainfall – or the heaviest rainfall – with these atmospheric river events”, the weather service forecaster Bob Oravec said.
All aboard the Pineapple Express!
On top of the rain that’s already fallen in Cali, models have Coastal Cali, and the SW as a whole, receiving rounds and rounds of rain over the next 10 days leading to impressive totals. ☔️#pineappleexpress #AtmosphericRiver pic.twitter.com/xX0u6HkakW
— Cory Kowitz (@cory_kowitz) February 1, 2024
By Thursday morning, officials had issued a flash-flood warning over a large swath of southern Los Angeles county. The weather service issued a flood watch into Friday morning for the Bay Area and the central coast because of possible flooding of rivers, streams, some roads and areas scarred by previous wildfires.
Forecasters also said the central coast could see waves of up to 18ft (5.4 metres) high on Thursday and Friday.
The governor’s office of emergency services stationed water rescue teams with fire departments and counties across the state in preparation for the extreme weather. On Thursday morning, firefighters in Orange county rescued one man from a storm channel.
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