The past month California has called for a state of emergency as a subtropical storm moves over the state. As the storm passed by California, many parts of the state experienced more rain, floods, and even snow in some places like Big Bear and Mammoth Lakes.

    The type of storm we are dealing with is called an atmospheric river and is described as a long, narrow band of tropical moisture that gets carried along the mid-and upper- parts of the atmosphere. This has already impacted over 39 million California residents. The atmospheric river storm coming from Hawaii is a phenomenon sometimes referred to as a “pineapple express.” It is rapidly moving south, raising concerns of flooding and more snow on Southern California’s already covered mountains.

    The worst of the storm took place in Santa Barbara and the neighboring cities on the morning of March the 14th, lasting until the afternoon. While Los Angeles was expected to get the worst of the storm later on at night. Some people stated the rain almost sounded like thunder coming down. 

   After another week of flooding and rain in California, residents were left with no power, a week’s worth of rain and flooding, and another atmospheric river hit California on Monday March,13th. The following week of March 20th saw another week of cold, rainy, and cloudy weather.

The Eagle’s Nest interviewed the students of South El Monte High School to see how the weather has impacted them inside and outside of school. Christian Jimenez, a junior at South, spoke about how the storms have been affecting him inside of school, “During school hours the rain can be very much a distraction during test taking, and while doing work.” When asked about his opinion of the rain outside of school he responded, “Listening to the rain after school tends to be more calming than distracting making the environment feel safer, so although the rain can be bad I tend to enjoy the rain.”  

       Another student Dayanara Guillen said, “The rain has made me take a few days off work impacting my salary.” Dayanara went on to describe how the rain effects her during school hours, “It’s hard to get to class cause my jeans get soaked, and my hair gets frizzy, making me take a detour to the restroom.” The amount of rain caused large pools of water during school that prevented students from getting to class.

    While the storms might be enjoyable to some people, to 366,000+  household owners it was not an enjoyable Tuesday morning, since they were left without power for hours.  In Santa Clara alone there were 128,00 households left without power, and this has been the case for many households around California as the storms continue to flood in.