atmospheric rivers Archives

24 June 2019

Atmospheric rivers getting warmer along U.S. West Coast

Most of the West Coast of the United States relies on a healthy winter snowpack to provide water through the dry summer months. But when precipitation falls as rain rather than snow, it can diminish summer water supplies, as well as trigger floods and landslides. A new study in AGU’s Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres finds atmospheric rivers –plumes of moisture that deliver much of the west’s precipitation—have gotten warmer over the past 36 years.

70-year record shows long-term trend in atmospheric river activity along U.S. West Coast

A new study has identified the climate variation patterns which exert the most influence on atmospheric river activity along the West Coast. One of these patterns is the long-term increasing trend associated with Pacific Ocean warming likely due to human activity.

Scientists investigate how atmospheric rivers may change as climate warms

A high-resolution climate model based at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is able to accurately capture the ribbons of moist air that sometimes escape the sodden tropics and flow toward the drier mid-latitudes, allowing scientists to investigate how “atmospheric rivers” may change as the climate warms.