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Atmospheric River

Warmer, drier weather is returning to the Bay Area. Here’s what’s in store

in Weather

The first half of the week was riddled with powerful winds, heavy rain and flooding across Northern California, brought on by a strong storm that tapped into an atmospheric river. That river will quickly run dry this morning, leaving warm air and more pleasant weather in its wake.

Temperatures will steadily rise today, as sunshine prevails and light northeast winds spill into the valleys and basins of the Bay Area. This means that the second half of the week is expected to be warmer, drier and much quieter.

Continue Reading on the San Francisco Chronicle

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Next Sonoma County atmospheric river to bring 60 mph gusts, possible thunderstorms

in Weather

Possible thunderstorms coupled with strong winds on Tuesday and early Wednesday could trigger multiple weather hazards, including mudslides, in the North Bay, according to the National Weather Service.

Residents are encouraged to secure outside items, monitor the weather and have a plan in place in case the storm, which is one of the strongest to hit the region this winter, causes evacuations or power failures, said Warren Blier, a meteorologist with the weather service’s Monterey office.

Widespread rains were expected to begin about midnight Tuesday after a day of scattered lighter showers.

Steadily increasing winds will peak about 3 a.m. at 20 to 35 mph with gusts around 45 mph in the Sonoma County valleys, said National Weather Service meteorologist Patrick Ayd.

Continue Reading on The Press Democrat

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Bay Area weather will start to feel tropical today as atmospheric river storm looms

in Weather

Bay Area residents are in for another round of pop-up thunderstorms and humid air today as the atmosphere continues to moisten. Most of Northern California’s coastline will feel more and more like a tropical environment in the coming days as winds slowly begin to blow from the southwest.

If this sounds familiar to the active weather from early January, it’s because these are the early stages of what will eventually evolve into a Pineapple Express – a huge flow of atmospheric moisture between Hawaii and California. This moisture will then precipitate out as bursts of heavy downpours and snow by this weekend. Until then, its streams will raise isolated thunderstorms every day this week across Northern California.

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Atmospheric river in the Bay Area this weekend? A couple weather models are trending that way

in Weather

Yet another round of thunderstorms will drench the Bay Area this morning, with impacts likely similar to Saturday night’s severe weather – which set off car alarms across San Francisco and Oakland.

Wet low-pressure systems continue to chip away at the foundation of a high-pressure system just off the coast of California. Like a dam that’s full of leaks, the foundation of the high-pressure system will continue to fall apart as more rain and thunderstorms break through. If this keeps up, the high-pressure system could collapse by Friday, allowing a torrent of atmospheric moisture to flow into the Bay Area on the weekend.

Continue Reading on the San Francisco Chronicle

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Final atmospheric river storm will slam the Bay Area today. Here are the biggest impacts

in Weather

A strong high-pressure system in the eastern Pacific Ocean is creeping toward the West Coast, and it’s slated to shut California’s storm door. This is good news for residents across the state who are still reeling from the impacts that were brought on by nearly three weeks of storms — enhanced by a series of powerful atmospheric rivers. But this historic wet pattern isn’t done with Northern California just yet. A final round of moisture from the Pacific Ocean will stream into the Bay Area and Sierra Nevada this afternoon, ushering one last round of rain and snow bands before the wet pattern ends.

Continue Reading on the San Francisco Chronicle

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What’s Driving Relentless Storms Against the West Coast?

in Weather

Due to two catastrophic anomalies occurring at the same time over the West Coast, two terms, “atmospheric river,” and “bomb cyclones” will be forever remembered as the cause of record amounts of rain, flash flooding, and mudslides this year as a near continuous storm lasting from Dec. 31 to Jan. 9 occurred throughout the region. 

Breaking a years-long dried streak, the 2022-2023 winter season brought in unseasonably wet conditions as multiple atmospheric rivers, frontal systems, and a “bomb cyclone” inundated the entire coastline, resulting in heavy rainfall that saturated much of California, and caused localized riverine and flash flooding, causing mudslides in the process.

Continue Reading on DS News

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3 more atmospheric rivers headed for Sonoma County. What’s driving the storm train?

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January is typically atmospheric river season in California, but since the start of the new year Sonoma County has been hammered by an almost nonstop series of them — an unusual occurrence, which experts are attributing to the jet stream that is surging over the Pacific Ocean.

Literally described as rivers in the sky, three more of these moisture-laden events are being carried by winds toward the Golden State, according to meteorologists, who expect more storms to begin Wednesday night.

Those storms will continue through Jan. 20, said Chad Hecht, a research and operations meteorologist with UC San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes.

Continue Reading on The Press Democrat

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Thousands still without power in Sonoma County

in News

A torrent of rain, fueled by what meteorologists described as an “atmospheric river,” wreaked havoc starting Saturday night, worsening throughout the day before easing locally Sunday evening.

Here is the latest on the storm and its aftermath:

3:30 p.m.

River flows a day after the atmospheric river passed over Sonoma County are about as epic as you’d expect.

“It’s been a while,” U.S. Geological Survey field office Chief Andrew Watson said Monday when asked how long it had been since he’d seen this amount of water flowing in the North Bay. “Peaks at all our sites are substantially higher than last year.”

How high?

Watson was measuring volume on the Russian River in Healdsburg when a reporter reached him. As he noted, average flow at that spot for Oct. 25 over the past 82 years is 286 cubic feet per second. The river he had just measured was at 11,200. And at its crest, around midnight as Saturday became Sunday, was more than 18,000 feet per second.

Continue Reading on The Press Democrat

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‘It’s A Big One’; Weekend Atmospheric River Gaining Intensity Off California Coast

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SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — While San Francisco Bay Area residents dodged light raindrops early Wednesday, a much larger atmospheric river continued to intensify off the coast, carrying with it the threat of up to 5 inches of rain in the coastal mountains this coming weekend.

The large plume stretched hundreds of miles across the Pacific, pulling in tropical moisture from the Hawaiian Islands — an unusual development for this time of the year.

When asked about the intensity of the storm, Marty Ralph, director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes in La Jolla, didn’t mince words.

Continue Reading on CBSSF Bay Area

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