Tag Archive for: Atmospheric Rivers

Drought or Dangerous Flooding? Research Aims to Tame Atmospheric River Risks – and Save California’s Rain

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

We were flying about 200 nautical miles off the coast of California when a voice over the headset reported a strong smell of fuel in the back of the plane.

I was in the cockpit with the U.S. Air Force’s “Hurricane Hunters,” who spend the summer and fall flying into the eyes of hurricanes. On a Tuesday at the end of January, though, we flew out of Travis Air Force Base in California toward a different kind of storm: an atmospheric river that was moving east across the North Pacific, toward the West Coast.

To Study Atmospheric Rivers, Scientists Need to Get Close. So They Fly to Them

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

The Air Force research crew on the WC-130J Super Hercules airplane was cruising at 28,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean, preparing to deploy 25 weather-sensing devices over a long band of water vapor known as an “atmospheric river” when the hazards of air travel got in the way of science.

Lt. Col. Jeff Ragusa, a pilot with the Air Force Reserve 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron, known as the Hurricane Hunters, was on the second of 12 missions to study atmospheric river storms and was ready to drop the sensors when fuel suddenly began leaking from a tank, forcing the aircraft to turn back.

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What Does Atmospheric River Mean? How the ‘Pineapple Express’ Impacts the West Coast

/in , , /by /FOX News by Travis Fedschun

Throughout the year, a weather system known as an “atmospheric river” can impact the West Coast of the U.S., causing flooding, heavy snow and possible mudslides.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration defines an atmospheric river as a huge plume of subtropical moisture that moves with the weather, carrying water roughly equivalent to the average flow at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

“Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics,” the NOAA states.

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UCSD Scientists Will Ride Research Aircraft into Huge Storms to Study Atmospheric Rivers

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

UC San Diego will send airborne scientists into huge offshore storms to deepen their understanding of ”atmospheric rivers,” the plumes of moisture that can bring nourishing rains, and flooding, to the West Coast.

The second of up to 12 winter weather reconnaissance flights is scheduled to take off from Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento on Tuesday, carrying researchers from NOAA and the Air Force. UCSD will add its own researchers to the trips in about a week.

The university is partnering with the government and military on the project, which is being run out of the UCSD’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

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Atmospheric Rivers Drive Western U.S. Flood Damages

/in , , /by /WeatherNationby Mace Michaels

New research recently published in Science Advances found that atmospheric rivers accounted for 84% of flood damages, or $42.6 billion, across the western United States from 1978-2017. Supported by NOAA’s Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) and co-authored by California-Nevada RISA PI Alexander Gershunov, the study analyzed 40 years of data from the National Flood Insurance Program to quantify atmospheric rivers’ economic impacts.

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Fires, Floods and More: A View of California From Space In 2019

/in , /by /CALmatters

The year began amid the ashes of the deadliest wildfire in California history. Then came torrential rains, the superbloom, a marine heat wave, and fires again.

They are events that foreshadow a future pattern of more extreme wildfires and rainstorms as climate change drives the Earth’s temperatures higher. The 2019 events prompted now familiar responses from politicians confronted with catastrophe across the state: disaster relief money, funding for scientific studies, and recriminations against bankrupt utility Pacific Gas and Electric.

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Pineapple Express Storm Will Bring Flooding And Snow To The West

/in , /by /San Jose Mercury Newsby Allison Chinchar

An atmospheric river is moving to the West Coast, likely to bring menacing flooding, heavy mountain snow, and damaging winds.

Atmospheric rivers are narrow corridors of the upper atmosphere that transport intense moisture from a large body of water onto land.

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Sky Rivers: A New Scale Categorizes Power of Crucial Atmospheric Flows

/in , /by /Cronkite News by Jordan Evans

You may have heard of the Pineapple Express – not the 2008 buddy comedy about marijuana, hit men and corrupt cops – but the long, narrow “river in the sky” that brings tropical moisture from Hawaii to the West Coast.

Atmospheric rivers, which have been studied for nearly two decades, are flowing areas of water vapor in the upper atmosphere driven by areas of low pressure over an ocean. They are the source of most of the West Coast’s heaviest rains and floods.

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Atmospheric Rivers Cause $1 Billion In Damage A Year, Study Shows, And Are Getting Worse

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Colleen Shalby

As back-to-back atmospheric rivers have made umbrellas a necessity across the state — and with more rain on the way in California this weekend — a new study reveals the connection between the weather phenomenon and the economic effects of localized flooding.

Atmospheric rivers, the storms that carry moisture from the tropics to the mid-latitude regions, have long been linked to the ecological impacts they have on a region. But when the storm passes, what’s left in its wake?

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California Storm Parade Continues Friday With More Rain, Feet of Sierra Snow Through The Weekend

/in , , /by /The Weather Channel by Jonathan Erdman

Another Pacific storm will surge into California Friday and last into the weekend wringing out feet of Sierra snow and more rain that could trigger additional flooding and debris flows.

Satellite imagery clearly shows the next system waiting in the wings to soak the Golden State beginning Friday.

Wednesday’s storm dumped about an inch of rain in downtown L.A. and San Diego, with locally higher amounts over the mountains.

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