So, it turns out an "atmospheric river" is EXACTLY what it sounds like.
An atmospheric river is a narrow conveyor belt of vapor about a mile
high that extends thousands of miles from out at sea and can carry as
much water as 15 Mississippi Rivers. It strikes as a series of storms
that arrive for days or weeks on end. Each storm can dump inches of rain
or feet of snow.
[...]
Megaflood Overdue?
The real scare, however, is that truly massive atmospheric rivers
that cause catastrophic flooding seem to hit the state about once every
200 years, according to evidence recently pieced together (and described
in the article noted above). The last megaflood was in 1861; rains
arrived for 43 days, obliterating Sacramento and bankrupting the state.
The disaster is largely forgotten, but the same region is now home to
more than six million people. Simulations of a 23-day storm
there indicate that more than $400 billion of damage and losses would
occur, far surpassing the $60 billion estimates for Hurricane Sandy’s
effects. New research also shows that climate change may make these
storms more likely to occur.
No comments:
Post a Comment