Two “Pineapple Express” atmospheric river storms hit California within a week, delivering significant precipitation across the West Coast. New satellite photos show the impact these storms had on California’s flagging snowpack.
California was deluged by damaging atmospheric rivers last year and now the Golden State must brace for two more on the way this week. The photo below, taken Tuesday afternoon by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s GOES-West satellite, shows a massive storm approaching from the west.
All aboard the Pineapple Express this week in California as some coastal ranges could see up to 8 inches of rain before the end of the week, and Los Angeles and San Diego could be in for more monumental flooding.
California is no stranger to big swings between wet and dry weather. The “atmospheric river” storms that have battered the state this winter are part of a system that has long interrupted periods of drought with huge bursts of rain — indeed, they provide somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all precipitation on the West Coast.
The parade of storms that has struck California in recent months has dropped more than 30 trillion gallons of water on the state, refilling reservoirs that had sat empty for years and burying mountain towns in snow.
Welp, here we go again. After a long period (a full season, really) of different kinds of exceptional weather conditions all around California, there’s yet one more big storm to come in the immediate future (discussed below). But what has transpired in the past, oh, 48 hours or so?
A powerful storm barreling toward California from the tropical Pacific threatens to trigger widespread river flooding throughout the state as warm rain melts a record accumulation of snowpack and sends runoff surging down mountains and into streams and reservoirs.
Although state officials insist they are prepared to manage runoff from what is now the 10th atmospheric river of a deadly rainy season, at least one expert described the combination of warm rain, epic snowpack and moist soils as “bad news.”
Another atmospheric river system has set its sights on California, raising considerable concern about flooding and structural damage as warm rain is expected to fall atop the state’s near-record snowpack this week, forecasters say.
“It now appears increasingly likely that a potentially significant and very likely warm atmospheric river event will probably affect some portion of Northern or Central California sometime between about late Thursday and Saturday,” UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said during a briefing Monday.
An intense cold front will tap into subtropical moisture and take on atmospheric river characteristics as it moves southeastward through the Central Coast on Wednesday into Thursday.
At this time, between 2 and 4 inches of rain is expected along the Central Coast. However, if the front stalls over a particular area, rainfall amounts will be much higher.
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.
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.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
