Originally Posted by
sandiego89
It may be worth noting that at the time of last contact, around 1130pm Tuesday night the area was being hit by a "river storm" bringing heavy wind, rain and snow at higher elevations, up to 8 inches of driving snow around the incident site near Pine Valley. Night in heavy snow, wind, terrain and likely on goggles. Can't imagine Miramar crews getting much snow flying experience.
Bless the families.
The term the weather geeks use is "Atmospheric River" - a somewhat new term, I'm more used to them calling them "Pineapple Express" (so named because the weather systems generally form in the tropic latitudes near Hawaii). They usually hit the coast further north in the Oregon/Washington/British Columbia region so were rather used to them around here - for some reason there have been a series of them hitting further south in California the last month (good news - if any - is that they need the rain).
Given this system was bad enough that the Weather Service had advised people to 'stay home - essential travel only', I'm a bit surprised the military was flying in those conditions (especially if, as previously posted, the helo lacked anti-icing capabilities). I know they need to be able to function/fight in all weather conditions, but sometimes discretion is the better part of valor.
RIP to those lost.