Atmospheric rivers

[randy_byers]

Cliff Mass has a blog post about the threat of flooding in the Green River and a couple of different approaches to trying to forecast the threat. What I found interesting about this post was a new term to me -- the lovely "atmospheric rivers," which is another term for what is popularly called a pineapple express in these parts -- and a color-coded satellite view or representation of what a pineapple express looks like. "Most of our local flooding events are associated with narrow plumes of warm, moist air coming out of the subtropics -- known as atmospheric rivers or pineapple expresses in the literature."

Here's another use of the term referring to the recent storms in California: Atmospheric River Slams Northern California.