Living through these 10 or more atmospheric rivers that have hit California since around November is completely different than talking about them. I haven't seen anything at all like this since around 1995 and 1997 and 1998. At that time the Carmel River bridge (next to Crossroads) in Carmel was thrown by huge trees coming down the Carmel river like battering rams 1 mile out into the ocean. This is and was a bridge made only of cement and reinforced iron bars and pavement and some other metals. So, imagine how many tons something like this would be of a huge two lane road bridge taken out one mile into the sea?
Another thought about all this is like it says below the average (non-atmospheric river storm has winds from 5 to 25 miles per hour. However, atmospheric river storms often exceed in gusts 40 to 50 miles per hour. And recently I have heard about in my county gusts of over 85 miles per hour. I myself haven't seen personally anything over 50 mph which has brought down 100s of trees in the north of California and thousands of trees all over California. The power has gone out so many times this year so far from trees taking down power lines that about half of the people near me have bought generators so they don't lose 500 dollars worth of food or more every power outage in their refrigerators. So, it's worth the investment of 500 to 800 dollars or more to not lose all your food in your freezers. Or you might buy a smaller Honda generator that will cover just your freezer and that's all. I bought a 5000 to 6000 watter that will cover almost anything I want to do but that's just me. Mine has wheels so I can roll it around outside or out of the rain under cover so it doesn't just sputter out eventually in the direct rain.
My neighbor has a generator that is built into it's own little building which goes on automatically within 12 seconds of a power outage. So, this kind of thing is available too.
I have a friend in Mt. Shasta that lives completely off the Grid now with solar panels and a generator for when it is cloudy too long even though there are solar panels that can gather power even under clouds these days too or from any light source.
But, maybe what's important here is how much damage Atmospheric river storms can do. For example, in 1862 atmospheric river storms bankrupted the state of California, killed 1/4 of the cattle in the state, killed thousands of people and put Sacramento under water for up to 6 months and they had to move the Capital to San Francisco for likely 6 months too while Sacramento dried out.
Since this type of thing happens historically in California every 100 to 200 years like Clockwork maybe understanding this might help thousands of people not die the next time this happens even if it is this year.
1862 California Floods News
Historic California Floods in Photos
NBC Los Angeles9 hours agoFrom the Great Flood of 1862 to this winter's soaking rains in Northern California, take a look back at some of the state's major floods. This collection of dramatic images ...Water projects protect us from drought, floods
Modesto Bee10 hours agoCalifornia’s worst floods came in 1861-62 as virtually the entire valley – 300 miles long, 20 miles wide – was inundated. Sacramento was abandoned...roads, bridges, homes and crops ...
- The Great Flood of 1862 was the largest flood in the recorded history of Oregon, Nevada, and California, occurring from December 1861 to January 1862.
- California Megaflood: Lessons from a Forgotten Catastrophe. A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern California underwater for up to six ...
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New Research Shows How 'Atmospheric Rivers' Wreak Havoc ...
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/02/20/515838078/new-res...12 hours ago ... New Research Shows How 'Atmospheric Rivers' Wreak Havoc Around The Globe ... Waliser studied two decades of storms around the globe at ...- 12 hours ago ... New Research Shows How 'Atmospheric Rivers' Wreak Havoc Around The Globe ... Waliser studied two decades of storms around the globe at ...
- New Research Shows How 'Atmospheric Rivers' Wreak Havoc Around The Globe. KALW. Story by KALW. February 20, 2017 9:00 AM. 1 upvotes. Upvote this ...
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New Research Shows How 'Atmospheric Rivers' Wreak Havoc Around The Globe
An "atmospheric river" is a colorful term for a sinuous plume of moisture that travels up from the tropics — a single plume can carry more water than the Mississippi River at its mouth. But new research shows that atmospheric rivers are also among the most damaging weather systems around.NOAAAtmospheric rivers are sinews of moisture from the tropics. The one pictured here appeared over the Northern Pacific on Jan. 3.
The atmospheric rivers that soaked California this winter did some good — they ended an epic drought in the state.
"This has been a very active winter, atmospheric river-wise," reports Jeff Zimmerman of the National Weather Service. "We've probably had 10 or more ... this winter." The norm is just a few; being a La Nina year, with cooler water in the eastern Pacific, was part of the reason for the abundance.
Atmospheric rivers are famously wet. But atmospheric scientist Duane Waliser has done some new research that shows they're also remarkably windy.
Waliser studied two decades of storms around the globe at mid-latitudes — that is, outside the tropics. When he focused on the very windiest — the top 2 percent — he found that "atmospheric rivers are typically associated with 30 and even up to 50 percent of those very extreme cases." Atmospheric rivers were also responsible for almost that percentage of the very wettest storms, too.
But the windiness was surprising. Waliser found that winds during an atmospheric river are typically twice the speed of the average storm. He says emergency responders need to know that.
"Not only do [atmospheric rivers] come with this potential for flooding hazards," he says, "they also come with potential for high impact winds and extremes that can produce hazardous conditions."
In fact, the atmospheric river that hit California on Jan. 8 knocked over a famous — and gigantic — sequoia in a state park.
Waliser, who's with NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab in California, says the combination of water and high wind is especially costly. Over the past two decades, for example, Europe experienced 19 storms that each did at least a billion dollars in damage. "And so out of these 19 storms," he says, "we associated atmospheric rivers with 14 out of the 19."NOAAA storm on Jan. 10 dumped several inches of snow over the Pacific Northwest. Atmospheric rivers like these funnel moisture from the tropics.
Waliser's research appears in the journal Nature Geoscience. He says his next project is to find out if climate change will make atmospheric rivers more frequent.
To the best of my ability I write about my experience of the Universe Past, Present and Future
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