#extremeatmosphericrivers — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #extremeatmosphericrivers, aggregated by home.social.
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37 million at risk for #flooding from blockbuster #California rainstorm
The second and stronger storm of a one-two punch will blast California with torrential rain, flooding and feet of snow.
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Published Feb 2, 2024 11:43 AM
"Hot on the heels of a drenching storm and a low-end #AtmosphericRiver that affected California from Wednesday to Thursday, a more potent storm and high-end atmospheric river will roll ashore Saturday night and Sunday with major impacts that will threaten lives, property and travel into next week, AccuWeather meteorologists continue to warn.
"Public awareness and storm readiness are strongly encouraged as life-threatening conditions may evolve in some communities.
"'Roughly 94% of California's population, up to 37 million people, is at risk for flooding, some of which can be life-threatening. Due to the numerous mountains and hills, even just a few inches of rain can cause significant flooding,' AccuWeather Senior Director of Forecasting Operations Dan DePodwin stated.
"'The greatest risk of a widespread flooding disaster is expected across the canyons and hills of Southern California, especially in Ventura, Santa Barbara and Los Angeles counties,' DePodwin added.
Blockbuster rainstorm, major flooding to unfold
"Because the new storm, packing much more moisture, will hit only a couple of days after the first storm soaked and #saturated much of the state, runoff will be rapid and potentially dangerous and destructive, especially in portions of Southern and Central California, where most of the new rain is likely to fall.
"The first storm brought a general 1-6 inches of rain from Wednesday to Thursday. However, starting as early as Saturday night, more than double the amount of rain may fall from the new storm, with some of the rainiest spots picking up a foot or more of rain in only 48 hours."
#ExtremeWeather #ExtremeAtmosphericRivers #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis #ClimateCatastrophe
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Summary: There may be fewer atmospheric rivers because of climate change, but the ones that occur will be extreme.
NASA: #ClimateChange may lead to bigger #AtmosphericRivers
By Esprit Smith,
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory
May 24, 2018"A new NASA-led study shows that #ClimateChange is likely to intensify #ExtremeWeather events known as atmospheric rivers across most of the globe by the end of this century, while slightly reducing their number.
"The new study projects atmospheric rivers will be significantly longer and wider than the ones we observe today, leading to more frequent atmospheric river conditions in affected areas.
"The results project that in a scenario where greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate, there will be about 10 percent fewer atmospheric rivers globally by the end of the 21st century,' said the study's lead author, Duane Waliser, of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. 'However, because the findings project that the atmospheric rivers will be, on average, about 25 percent wider and longer, the global frequency of atmospheric river conditions -- like #HeavyRain and #StrongWinds -- will actually increase by about 50 percent.'
"The results also show that the frequency of the most intense atmospheric river storms is projected to nearly double.
"Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow jets of air that carry huge amounts of water vapor from the tropics to Earth's continents and polar regions. These 'rivers in the sky' typically range from 250 to 375 miles (400 to 600 kilometers) wide and carry as much water -- in the form of water vapor -- as about 25 Mississippi Rivers. When an atmospheric river makes landfall, particularly against mountainous terrain (such as the Sierra Nevada and the Andes), it releases much of that water vapor in the form of rain or snow.
"These storm systems are common -- on average, there are about 11 present on Earth at any time. In many areas of the globe, they bring much-needed precipitation and are an important contribution to annual freshwater supplies. However, stronger atmospheric rivers -- especially those that stall at landfall or that produce rain on top of snowpack -- can cause disastrous #flooding.
"Atmospheric rivers show up on satellite imagery, including in data from a series of actual atmospheric river storms that drenched the U.S. West Coast and caused severe flooding in early 2017."
Read more: https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2740/climate-change-may-lead-to-bigger-atmospheric-rivers/
#Weather #Climate #GlobalWarming #AtmosphericRiver #ExtremeWeather #ExtremeAtmosphericRivers