Day 355: Atmospheric River
As I mentioned last night, a very moist airmass is moving through the western United States. Tonight’s image is a precipitable water image of the eastern Pacific Ocean. Notice the higher returns from the central Pacific Ocean extending eastward into southern California. This sliver of higher precipitable water values extending northward is known as an “atmospheric river“. This atmospheric river is bringing copious amounts of moisture northward into southern California and is aiding the impressive precipitation totals out west!
About Patrick
Patrick Marsh is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology. He earned a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Physics (cum laude) from the University of Arkansas in 2005 and a Masters of Science in Meteorology from the University of Oklahoma in 2007. In addition to working on his doctorate, Patrick serves as the National Severe Storms Laboratory Liaison to the Hazardous Weather Testbed where his research interests lie in working with operational forecasters, data mining, data visualization, and all things high-impact weather. For more about Patrick's work, check out his complete CV!
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