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California Is About To Get Pummeled With Rivers Of Rain (Like, Not Since 1861)
TBI ^ | 11-30-2012 | Mark Fischetti, Scientific American

Posted on 11/30/2012 3:04:06 PM PST by blam

California Is About To Get Pummeled With Rivers Of Rain

Mark Fischetti, Scientific American
November 30, 2012

An atmospheric river (thin yellow band) feeds torrential rain into northern California on Nov. 30.

Northern California is experiencing the first days of what weather forecasters are warning will be a long series of torrential rainstorms that could cause serious flooding across the northern one-third of the state.

The relentless storms are being driven by a feature in the atmosphere you have probably never heard of: an atmospheric river.

Oh, and another atmospheric river created the worst flooding since the 1960s in western England and Wales this past week, where more than 1,000 homes had to be evacuated.

An atmospheric river is a narrow conveyor belt of vapor about a mile high that extends thousands of miles from out at sea and can carry as much water as 15 Mississippi Rivers.

It strikes as a series of storms that arrive for days or weeks on end. Each storm can dump inches of rain or feet of snow. For more details, see this feature story that Scientific American has just published, written by two experts on these storms.

Scientists discovered atmospheric rivers in 1998 and have only recently characterized them fully enough to allow forecasters to warn of their arrival.

They can strike the west coasts of most continents, but California seems to be a prime target. As many as nine small atmospheric rivers reach the state each year, each lasting two to three days, including the famous “pineapple express” storms that come straight from the Hawaii region of the Pacific Ocean.

This story was originally published by Scientific American. Reprinted with permission.

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: California
KEYWORDS: atmosphericriver; disaster; floods; rains; riversofrain; weather
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1 posted on 11/30/2012 3:04:12 PM PST by blam
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To: blam
The satellite pic looks as if God himself is throwing a punch at California :)
2 posted on 11/30/2012 3:07:11 PM PST by bayliving (I suffer from democrat induced tourette syndrome...)
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To: blam

If it comes from Hawaii shouldn’t it be called the
OBAMA Express??


3 posted on 11/30/2012 3:08:35 PM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: blam

Last year that jet stream dumped a record level of snow in Alaska.

Now, it’s your turn. At least you don’t have to shovel the stuff...


4 posted on 11/30/2012 3:08:35 PM PST by ASOC (What are you doing now that Mexico has become OUR Chechnya?)
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To: blam

Started last night about 6 and did not stop till 1pm next day tomorrow night supposed to be a lot worse.


5 posted on 11/30/2012 3:11:45 PM PST by GSP.FAN (Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.)
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To: blam

Simulations of a 23-day storm there indicate that more than $400 billion of damage and losses would occur,

Just lovely.
We are the worst run/poorest of the 50 states, and probably on the way to a financial death spiral. What next, frogs?


6 posted on 11/30/2012 3:12:44 PM PST by Excellence (9/11 was an act of faith.)
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To: blam

Oh, cry me a river. Its winter in No Cal. It rains. BTW, if that picture means SF will get flooded, then it looks like Latin America will get washed away.


7 posted on 11/30/2012 3:13:21 PM PST by BMCinSC
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To: blam

The Northwest coast is rainforest country even under normal conditions. So I guess this is going to be pretty bad, if the forecast is right.


8 posted on 11/30/2012 3:14:29 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: bayliving

>>>The satellite pic looks as if God himself is throwing a punch at California :)<<<

Right in Nancy Pelosi’s fat kisser (ie district)


9 posted on 11/30/2012 3:15:58 PM PST by reagandemocrat
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To: blam

quack quack
learn to swim


10 posted on 11/30/2012 3:16:22 PM PST by ßuddaßudd (>> F U B O << "What the hell kind of country is this if I can only hate a man if he's white?")
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To: bayliving

bump


11 posted on 11/30/2012 3:16:59 PM PST by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: blam

Looks like Mammoth Mountain is in for one hell of a ride!


12 posted on 11/30/2012 3:17:57 PM PST by montomike (Politics should be about service and not a lucrative, money-making opportunity!)
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To: ASOC
Last year that jet stream dumped a record level of snow in Alaska.

Now, it’s your turn. At least you don’t have to shovel the stuff...

No shoveling along the coastal areas, but we sure do where I live in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Calif. Nine feet of snow out of a storm like this isn't unusual here.

13 posted on 11/30/2012 3:18:47 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: Excellence
We are the worst run/poorest of the 50 states, and probably on the way to a financial death spiral. What next, frogs?

A plague of mud slides. Be careful.

Let's face it, California has become the home of every unclean bird of the earth. Every weirdo movement we're being forced to clean up after today came out of California.

14 posted on 11/30/2012 3:19:00 PM PST by concerned about politics ("Get thee behind me, Liberal")
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To: ASOC
Last year that jet stream dumped a record level of snow in Alaska.

Now, it’s your turn. At least you don’t have to shovel the stuff...

No shoveling along the coastal areas, but we sure do where I live in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Calif. Nine feet of snow out of a storm like this isn't unusual here.

15 posted on 11/30/2012 3:19:04 PM PST by Inyo-Mono (My greatest fear is that when I'm gone my wife will sell my guns for what I told her I paid for them)
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To: Inyo-Mono

Hey, send some of that snow over to Colorado, we could sure use some!


16 posted on 11/30/2012 3:24:52 PM PST by taxcontrol
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
Ernest, RUN!!

Megastorms Could Drown Massive Portions Of California


17 posted on 11/30/2012 3:28:26 PM PST by blam
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To: Excellence
We are the worst run/poorest of the 50 states, and probably on the way to a financial death spiral. What next, frogs?

13 And Moonbeam stretched out his staff over the Golden State, and the rain flushed homeless out of creekbeds across the land 14 pushing shopping carts they invaded all California and settled down in coffee shops in great numbers. 15 They sought out unlocked garages and community centers. They devoured all that was left —everything growing in the fields and the fruit on the trees. Nothing remained that wasn't nailed down in all the land of California.

18 posted on 11/30/2012 3:35:31 PM PST by skeeter
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To: blam

Direct a storm toward us so we to can recieve federal monies


19 posted on 11/30/2012 3:41:08 PM PST by ronnie raygun (bb)
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To: blam

The article was going along good until of course THE NEW STUDY TYING IT INTO CLIMATE CHANGE. I guess CLIMATE CHANGE must have really started in 1861. I’ll have to email AL GORE and have him update his movie.


20 posted on 11/30/2012 3:44:12 PM PST by spawn44 (moo)
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