Atmospheric river floods California towns, brings rain, snow

More than 9,000 California residents were under evacuation orders Friday after a new atmospheric river brought heavy rain, thunderstorms and strong winds, swelling rivers and creeks and flooding several major highways. In Santa Cruz County, a creek bloated by rain destroyed a portion of Main Street and isolated several neighborhoods in Soquel, a town of 10,000 people. The atmospheric river is known as a “Pineapple Express” because it has brought warm subtropical moisture across the Pacific from Hawaii. The warm rain is melting lower parts of the huge snowpack built in California’s mountains by nine early winter atmospheric rivers and later storms fueled by a blast of arctic air.