Atmospheric rivers, in real time
Posted on | March 14, 2012 | 6 Comments
California radar storm estimate, evening 3/14/2012
As I write this, California’s being pounded by a particularly impressive storm.
According to Mike Dettinger, it’s an “atmospheric river” storm, one of the type he and other climate/water researchers have been studying increasingly closely because of their importance to California’s water supply. As I wrote last year, California has the most highly variable precipitation in the country (as measured with the standard deviation divided by the mean), with annual water supply strongly influence by the presence or absence of a handful of these AR storms. From a paper last year by Dettinger et al:
If just a couple of storms do not arrive in California, or yield significantly less precipitation than needed, in a given year, that year’s precipitation total and water resources suffer disproportionately, compared to other regions. Alternatively a relatively few large or “extra” storms may result in a particularly wet year.
This year, we seem to be having a year that was extremely dry getting a last-minute reprieve by an AR blast.
Related posts:
- California and the Problem of Variability in Water Management
- Dry Year
- California Flooding in a Warming World
- A Dry Few Months
- Water in the Desert
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Comments
6 Responses to “Atmospheric rivers, in real time”
March 14th, 2012 @ 9:39 pm
They call it ‘March Miracle’ for a reason. IF you’re interested, I have an .mpg of the globe’s atmospheric rivers over a year. I’ll FTP it if you want it.
Best,
D
March 14th, 2012 @ 9:53 pm
I’d *love* to see it
March 15th, 2012 @ 11:09 am
Its a 40 mb .mpg, try this first rather than e-mail. Let me know if this link still works John. If not I can FTP it from my website.
https://www.ucar.edu/publications/nsf_review/animations/ccm3.512×256.mpg
Best,
D
March 15th, 2012 @ 12:10 pm
That’s a very cool animation. What year is it from?
March 15th, 2012 @ 9:30 pm
It worked, and it’s beautiful, Dano, thanks.
March 16th, 2012 @ 12:01 am
;o)
I’m using it in a presentation for a weather interpretation class I’m teaching here soon. I can’t look at the slide because I don’t get any work done. IIRC it is from 2009, mike.
Best,
D