California Is About To Get Pummeled With Rivers Of Rain Mark Fischetti, Scientific AmericanNovember 30, 2012An 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...