Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of water vapor that transport vast amounts of moisture from the tropics to higher latitudes. These phenomena are crucial for water supplies in the US West Coast but can also lead to severe storms, flooding, and mudslides.
Atmospheric rivers are long and relatively narrow bands of water vapor that form over an ocean and flow through the sky, transporting much of the moisture from the tropics to northern latitudes. They occur globally but are especially significant on the West Coast of the United States, where they create 30% to 50% of annual precipitation and are vital to water supplies but also can cause storms that produce flooding and mudslides, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Formed by winds associated with cyclones, atmospheric rivers typically range from 250 miles to 375 miles (400 to 600 kilometers) in width and move under the influence of other weather. Many atmospheric river events are weak. But the powerful ones can transport extraordinary amounts of moisture. Studies have shown that they can carry seven to 15 times the average amount of water discharged daily by the Mississippi River, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. When the moisture-laden air moves over mountain ranges such as the Sierra Nevada along the California-Nevada line, the water vapor rises and cools, becoming heavy precipitation that falls as rain or snow, according to NOAA. While traditional cold winter storms out of the north Pacific build the Sierra snowpack, atmospheric rivers tend to be warm. Snow may still fall at the highest elevations but rain usually falls on the snowpack at lower elevations. That can quickly prompt melting, runoff and flooding and decrease the snowpack needed for California’s water supply. A nickname for a strong atmospheric river in the tropical Pacific near Hawaii is the Pineapple Express. The name came from research published in the 1990s by scientists Yong Zhu and Reginald E. Newell of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Atmospheric rivers are often referred to as ARs.
Atmospheric Rivers Weather Climate Water Cycle Precipitation
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