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NASA has launched another of the world’s most advanced weather satellites, this time to safeguard the western U.S. An Atlas V (five) rocket blasted off Thursday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying the GOES-S satellite for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It’s the second satellite in an $11 billion effort that’s already revolutionizing forecasting with fast, crisp images of hurricanes, wildfires and other natural calamities. The first spacecraft in the series has been monitoring the Atlantic and East Coast for the past year. The same first-class service is now coming to the Pacific region.

The storm currently hitting Southern California is the second this week, but it’s far different than its predecessor. The earlier storm originated near Alaska, like many of California’s winter storms do, but it packed little rain because it tracked over land instead of the Pacific Ocean. The second storm, the one that began drenching the region Thursday, is what’s known as an atmospheric river. It’s a type of storm that begins far out at sea, allowing it to gather abundant moisture as it barrels toward land driven by high winds.

San Diego County will get hit by the second storm of the week late Friday. But it will be weaker than Tuesday’s system and will do little to reduce the growing deficit in seasonal rainfall. The National Weather Service says the system is likely to drop about a half-inch of rain at the coast and twice as much across inland valleys and foothills by the time it moves east late Saturday. The system also could bring snow. But the storm is warmer, so the snow level will be at about 6,000 feet.