atmospheric river

The Pacific Northwest coast saw two atmospheric rivers (ARs) bring heavy rains from Nov. 10-16, 2021, resulting in severe flooding, landslides, and damage to infrastructure in the British Columbia province of Canada. ARs are long, narrow corridors of water vapor that travel vast distances above the ocean from warm, tropical regions to higher latitudes, where they often release their moisture as rainfall when they reach land areas. While ARs occur across the globe, this year has been notable for several strong events that have impacted the Pacific Northwest coast. The two atmospheric rivers in

The Pacific Northwest experienced a memorable series of storms in late Oct. 2021 as several low-pressure systems rolled in from the northeast Pacific Ocean. One of the systems was classified by meteorologists as a “bomb cyclone”, meaning that its central pressure (an indication of storm strength) had dropped particularly rapidly in a short time period. At its minimum pressure (highest strength), the system was reported by the National Weather Service to have had the lowest pressure of a system over the northeastern Pacific Ocean since reliable observations began in 1974. The system was notable

NASA combined data from multiple satellites to estimate the rainfall from an "atmospheric river" event over the U.S. West Coast in near real-time at half-hourly intervals from January 25 - 29, 2021. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow corridors of water vapor that can lead to heavy precipitation when they encounter land. This animation shows estimated rainfall rates in blue and yellow shading and total rainfall accumulations in green shading, from NASA's IMERG algorithm, overlaid on shades of white and gray from NOAA infrared satellite data which shows cloudiness. On January 25, 2021, a low