Roads were flooded and trees toppled amid calls for others to prepare for heavy downpours, heavy snowfall and damaging winds.
What is an atmospheric river? And other weather terms explained
Here’s a quick look at other storms that hit the West Coast of North America this winter.
Atmospheric River
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration refers to these as “rivers in the sky” for good reason. Characterized by long streams of moisture in the atmosphere, the average atmospheric river carries an amount of water vapor that rivals the flow at the mouth of the mighty Mississippi River – and strong ones can hold up to 15 times that amount. That moisture is released as rain or snow when ARs make landfall and typically are accompanied by strong, gusty winds adding to their destructive tendencies.
Quick Pineapple
These rivers, with their incredibly strong atmosphere, owe their name to their origin. Drawing in moisture from the Pacific around Hawaii, Pineapple Express storms have been known to unleash torrents of precipitation when they reach the West Coast of the U. S. The U. S. and Canada dump about five inches of rain on California in a single day, according to the National Ocean Service.
Cyclone pump
These low-pressure storm systems help create atmospheric rivers, pushing them from the Pacific to the coast. Unlike hurricanes or other storms where the center is the strongest, bomb cyclones can generate the worst weather at their edges.
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It is a climatic style characterized by unusually warm ocean surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific. Like its La Niña counterpart, which, in turn, refers to an era of cooler-than-average sea surface temperatures, those phenomena can have an effect on weather patterns around the world. Although weather patterns don’t match, El Niño is linked to warmer temperatures and generally leads to drier situations in the northern U. S. There are more flooding hazards in the U. S. and Canada, and wetter situations, leading to increased flooding hazards, in the south.
– Gabrielle Canon, U. S. Climate and Extreme Weather CorrespondentU. S.
The storms also brought heavy snow to higher-elevation areas, a promising sign for the state’s sparse snowpack, which lately accounts for just 52% of the annual average. The Mammoth Mountain ski hotel in the Sierra Nevada reported 30 to 36 cm of snow overnight. Heavy snow was also recorded in the mountains east of Los Angeles.
The typhoon came a week after heavy rains triggered flash flooding that flooded homes, caused the river to overflow its banks and overturn cars in the county. Hundreds of people had to be rescued when the waters rose.
The Pineapple Express, a long column of moisture carried from the Pacific to near Hawaii, will be followed by an even stronger typhoon on Sunday, forecasters said.
Last winter, California was hit by drought-fighting rivers that led to primary flooding, giant waves that battered riverside communities, and common snowfall that crushed buildings. More than 20 people have died in storms described as one of the “deadliest herbal storms mistakes in fashion history” in California.
The second typhoon heading toward the state this week is already expected to be “the largest typhoon of the season,” according to the National Weather Service. The worst of the typhoon will come Sunday and Monday afternoon, when it stops over Point Conception in Santa Barbara County.
“This system will likely produce 24 to 36 hours (or more) of continuous rain,” the weather service wrote Thursday.
Models recommend that it could become more pronounced as it approaches the California coast, a procedure called “bombogenesis” in which a low-pressure rotating formula deepens rapidly, Swain said at an online news conference Tuesday. The procedure is commonly referred to as a “bomb cyclone. “
That would create the possibility of a primary windstorm in the San Francisco Bay Area and other parts of Northern California, as well as heavy rainfall, said Daniel Swain, a climatologist at the University of California, Davis. California to Los Angeles.
Gabrielle Canon contributed to the report.