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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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How Much Damage Do Atmospheric Rivers Cause

/in , /by /The New York Times by Jill Cowan

It rained in Southern California again on Wednesday.

The storm, Marty Ralph told me, was caused by an atmospheric river, a meteorological phenomenon you have been hearing more about lately as climate change drives bigger swings between tinder dry conditions and pounding rain.

And although the rain caused the usual traffic headaches and advisories against swimming at the beach, this particular atmospheric river was actually “primarily beneficial,” according to a scale that Mr. Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, helped develop.

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San Diego Got More Rain Than Seattle in November

/in , , /by /FOX 5 San Diegoby Matt Meyer

Normally sunny San Diego got more rain than Seattle last month, a reverse of what residents of both West Coast cities have to come to expect.

The National Weather Service recorded just under 3 inches of rain with their monitoring station at Lindbergh Field this November, making it the wettest November on record for San Diego.

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How The Atmospheric River Storm Affected Bay Area Rain Totals

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

Remember fire season and power outages? They seem so long ago now.

The cold storms that suddenly doused the Bay Area over the past week instantly flipped a switch from summer to winter weather conditions. But so far, they have brought radically different amounts of rain to communities across Northern California.

“We basically went from fire season to rain season in a matter of 48 hours,” said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. “We’re making progress, but we could still use some more rain.”

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