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Satellite images show massive atmospheric river that is barreling over the West Coast
Weather advisories were in effect for parts of the West Coast this week as powerful atmospheric rivers barreled in from the Pacific Ocean. Satellite images from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captured the massive storms as they approached the coast, where they threatened to cause flooding and damage.
Atmospheric rivers are long regions in the atmosphere that transport water. The water vapor they carry is roughly equivalent to the average flow of water at the mouth of the Mississippi River, according to NOAA. So, when they make landfall and release all that water, they can cause extreme flooding.
NOAA
According to The Weather Channel, there are typically three to seven atmospheric rivers present in the world at any given time. They don’t only happen on the West Coast of the U.S., but a well-known atmospheric river, the “Pineapple Express,” does occur in this region.
The Pineapple Express is known to wallop the U.S. and Canada’s West Coasts with heavy rainfall and snow after building in the Pacific Ocean around Hawaii, according to NOAA. California can see up to five inches of rain in one day when the Pineapple Express arrives.
Back-to-back storms that pummeled the West Coast this week flowed along the Pineapple Express.
NOAA
Northern California and parts of the state’s central and southern regions were expected to get three to five inches of rain, with some spots receiving more than six inches, according to the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes. The Sierra Nevada mountain range in California was expected to get two feet of snow, but more than three feet in higher elevations.
On Thursday morning, a storm was bringing strong wind, rain and snow to parts of Northern California, like Sacramento, where some roads were restricted due to dangerous travel conditions, according to CBS Sacramento. The heavy winds even downed a tree in the state’s capital.
Sonoma and Marin counties, which are in the Bay Area, were also under flood advisories, CBS San Francisco reports. Parts of highways in Santa Clara and Sonoma counties were closed due to mudslides caused by the storm.
While atmospheric rivers could bring flooding and damage, they are an important part of the water supply and the rain and snow they bring could help fill reservoirs.
Snow was expected in the mountains this week, NOAA said. When snowpack melts it can fill reservoirs and help with drought relief.
NOAA
Several back-to-back atmospheric rivers hit California last winter, causing $4.6 billion in damage. CBS News recently joined a group of hurricane hunters as the NOAA scientists dropped instruments to measure wind speed and direction, temperature and humidity that will collect data points that will help improve the accuracy of forecasts. The powerful storms are expected to become stronger as the planet warms.
President-elect Donald Trump tapped Republican Brendan Carr, an Elon Musk-backed critic of big tech, to lead the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), calling Carr a “warrior for Free Speech” in a statement on Sunday.
Carr has “fought against the regulatory Lawfare that has stifled Americans’ Freedoms” and will “end the regulatory onslaught that has been crippling America’s Job Creators and Innovators, and ensure that the FCC delivers for rural America,” Trump said in the statement.
Carr said on Musk’s social platform X that he was “humbled and honored” to take on the role of FCC chairman.
“We must dismantle the censorship cartel and restore free speech rights for everyday Americans,” he wrote in another post Sunday.
Alex Wong / AP
It is a phrase he has used repeatedly, posting on Friday: “Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft & others have played central roles in the censorship cartel,” adding that it “must be dismantled.”
Carr was already the senior Republican on the FCC, an independent agency that regulates licenses for television and radio, pricing of home internet, and other communications issues in the United States.
The five-person commission will have a 3-2 Democratic majority until next year, when Trump will get to appoint a new member, The Associated Press points out, adding that Carr has also been the commission’s general counsel and was confirmed unanimously by the Senate three times and nominated by both Trump and President Biden to the commission.
Long rumored as a contender for FCC chair, he has built an alliance with billionaire Musk — Trump’s wealthiest backer, whose Starlink satellite internet service could benefit from access to federal cash.
The New York Times reported that Starlink received an $885 million grant in late 2020 from the FCC — but that the Democrat-led commission later revoked it because the service couldn’t prove it would reach enough unconnected rural homes.
Carr “vociferously” opposed the decision, the newspaper reported.
“In my view, it amounted to nothing more than regulatory lawfare against one of the left’s top targets: Mr. Musk,” he wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion article last month.
Carr has also publicly agreed with the incoming Trump administration’s promises to slash regulation and punish television networks for what they say is political bias.
Trump has repeatedly called to strip major broadcasters such as ABC, NBC and CBS of their licenses.
During the 2024 campaign, he singled out CBS, saying its license should be revoked after its flagship news program “60 Minutes” aired an interview with his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump had declined to sit for a similar interview.
Trump sued CBS News, alleging the network’s “deceitful” editing of the 60 Minutes interview of Harris misled the public and unfairly disadvantaged him. In a statement, CBS News called the former president’s claims “completely without merit” and said the network intended to vigorously defend against the lawsuit.
Carr also wrote a chapter on the FCC in the controversial Project 2025 document that purported to lay out a vision for a second Trump administration, in which he also called for the regulation of the largest tech companies, such as Meta, Google and Apple.
The FCC needs to bring new urgency to four main goals: reining in big tech, promoting national security, “unleashing” economic prosperity and ensuring FCC accountability, he wrote in the document by the conservative Heritage Foundation.
Carr was a strong foe of the FCC’s reinstatement in April of landmark net neutrality rules that were repealed during the first Trump administration, the Reuters news agency notes. The Biden FCC rules were in turn put on hold by a federal appeals court.
Two people were killed and 10 others were wounded in two separate shootings along a New Orleans parade route and celebration attended by thousands on Sunday, authorities said. There were no immediate arrests.
Officers responding to reports of gunfire shortly after 3:30 p.m. on an avenue in the city’s St. Roch neighborhood found eight victims with gunshot wounds, according to a news release from the New Orleans Police Department. All eight were taken to hospitals in unknown condition. Police later said a ninth wounded person arrived at a hospital via a private car.
CBS New Orleans affiliate WWL-TV reports that, according to investigators, ballistics showed that two shooters were involved.
About 45 minutes later, police received another report of gunfire as revelers were crossing the Almonaster Avenue Bridge, just over half a mile (.8 km) to the north. One person died at the scene and another died at a hospital, police said. A third victim was driven to a hospital in a private vehicle and was in stable condition, police said.
No arrests were announced and no suspect information was released.
The St. Roch neighborhood is several blocks northeast of the city’s French Quarter that is popular with tourists.
The Almonaster Bridge was closed in both directions during the investigation.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said detectives didn’t immediately know if the incidents were related.
“They were … different kinds of approaches,” she said of the shootings, which occurred in the area where a “second line,” a celebration following a parade, was taking place.
Thousands had gathered for the annual outing of the Nine Times Social Aid & Pleasure Club in the 9th Ward, organizer Oscar Brown told NOLA.com.
“It is a wonderful event, and we want to keep it a wonderful event,” Kirkpatrick said.
It was the second major shooting in the South since gunfire marred a homecoming weekend at Tuskegee University in Alabama on Nov. 10, leaving one person dead and injuring 16 others, a dozen of them by gunfire, authorities said.
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