Atmospheric rivers

[randy_byers]

Cliff Mass has a blog post about the threat of flooding in the Green River and a couple of different approaches to trying to forecast the threat. What I found interesting about this post was a new term to me -- the lovely "atmospheric rivers," which is another term for what is popularly called a pineapple express in these parts -- and a color-coded satellite view or representation of what a pineapple express looks like. "Most of our local flooding events are associated with narrow plumes of warm, moist air coming out of the subtropics -- known as atmospheric rivers or pineapple expresses in the literature."

Here's another use of the term referring to the recent storms in California: Atmospheric River Slams Northern California.

Comments

[holyoutlaw.livejournal.com]

"Atmospheric river" sounds pretty insubstantial for something that can dump so much rain over so many days.

Maybe it'll be like "partly cloudy" to Minnesnowtans. When the weather man says "partly cloudy," you get out the shovel.

[randy-byers.livejournal.com]

I dunno, "river" sounds like a lot of water to me, although I can see your reading too. Is it an airy river, or a river in the air?

I was really intrigued by the graphic showing it as a narrow finger pointing out from a much larger body. They feel so all-encompassing when they hit.