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Have you recently heard the term "atmospheric river"? Was it the first time? You're not alone.
With a two-week-long onslaught of severe flooding hitting California, the concept of an atmospheric river has entered the daily discussion. So what is it? Is it new? Does it affect Texas?
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Firstly, atmospheric rivers have always been around, but were only formally named and discussed among scientists in the 1990s.
To this day, there is some debate as to the exact definition, but it is essentially a long, narrow channel of air in the atmosphere that carries large amounts of moisture from tropical areas northward. These narrow channels of moist air carry more than double the water flow of the Amazon River!
In the most recent case, a series of moisture streams have moved humid air from the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii to California. Once it moves into California, the moisture is "squeezed" when it is lifted by their mountains resulting in heavy rain at low elevations and heavy snow in high elevations. This has resulted in flash flooding, mudslides and even the potential for avalanches.
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River of moisture
With a two-week-long onslaught of severe flooding hitting California, the concept of an atmospheric river has entered the daily discussion.
Our weather graphics show how the moisture moves through the Pacific by using the water vapor satellite imagery as well as the green channel of moisture as shown by the GFS computer model. Often this pattern can be persistent with several rounds of the "rivers" affecting the same area for a week or more.
So, do these systems ever hit Texas? The simple answer is not really. Yes, some leftover moisture can have an effect on our weather, and cold fronts associated with the bumps of the jet stream will move through Texas, but our flooding is not generally caused by these rivers. Most of the rainfall from atmospheric rivers is squeezed out by the Sierra Nevada and Rocky Mountains and is depleted by the time it reaches Texas.