It has been a stormy beginning to the New Year for California with severe storms slamming the state this week. On January 5, it was hit by an ‘atmospheric river’ which led to two deaths and 163,000 people were left without power. Atmospheric rivers are storms which act like rivers in the sky, dumping massive amounts of rain which can cause flooding and mudslides. Named by researchers in the 1990s, they can carry up to 15 times the volume of the Mississippi river. This the third atmospheric river to pummel the drought-stricken state, spurred by a bomb cyclone which brought moisture from the Pacific. Wind speeds reached 100 miles per hour in some parts of the state as infrastructure suffered huge damage, closing highways in several areas. According to climate scientist Colin McCarthy, “Over 20 trillion gallons of water are expected to fall across California over the next 2 weeks. That’s enough water to cover a flat surface the size of California in over half a foot of water.”
— source downtoearth.org.in | 06 Jan 2023