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Examples
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The promised atmospheric river had arrived in Portland by Monday morning, and that meant: Rain.
Rain, rain and some more rain Monday as atmospheric river hits Portland Lizzy Acker | The Oregonian/OregonLive 2025
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Atmospheric rivers are relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky – that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics.
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An atmospheric river is set to arrive in western Washington on Monday, drenching the region and flooding local rivers as the week continues.
9 rivers expected to reach 'major' flood stage in western Washington this week Parella Lewis 2025
ruzuzu commented on the word atmospheric river
"Atmospheric rivers are long streams of water vapor that form at about one mile up in the atmosphere. They are only 250 miles across but extend for thousands of miles—sometimes across an entire ocean basin such as the Pacific. These conveyor belts of vapor carry as much water as 10 to 15 Mississippi Rivers from the tropics and across the middle latitudes. When one reaches the U.S. West Coast and hits inland mountain ranges, such as the Sierra Nevada, it is forced up, cools off and condenses into vast quantities of precipitation."
-- http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=megastorms-could-down-massive-portions-of-california
December 2, 2012
fbharjo commented on the word atmospheric river
Hence, there are atmospheric arroyos and rain shadows without clouds, also.
December 2, 2012
alexz commented on the word atmospheric river
Here's a good satellite picture of an atmospheric river.
https://twitter.com/PeterVogel/status/1459308627181793280
November 13, 2021
yarb commented on the word atmospheric river
This river's got real atmosphere!
November 25, 2021
yarb commented on the word atmospheric river
In the old days they called this a pineapple express but that was an appropriation of Hawaiian culture.
November 25, 2021
ry commented on the word atmospheric river
I don't think Pineapple Express is really deprecated in meteorology for PC reasons, just informal. Weather reporters in Northern California still use it on air from time to time. Also atmospheric river is hypernymous to Pineapple express, the latter being a particular example of the former
November 26, 2021
yarb commented on the word atmospheric river
Yeah I was just kidding about the cultural appropriation. Still, I think pineapple express is more... atmospheric.
November 27, 2021