Sentences with phrase «because atmospheric rivers»

That is because atmospheric rivers (see sidebar) often produce heavy, cold season precipitation and flooding when they hit the west coast of North America.

Not exact matches

A study published this year by Bradley Udall, senior water and climate research scientist with the Colorado Water Institute at Colorado State University, and Jonathan Overpeck, professor of hydrology and atmospheric sciences at the University of Arizona, found that during the drought years of 2000 - 2014, the river surrendered a third of its flow because of higher temperatures in the upper basin.

This study found that associated with a poleward shift of the subtropical jet in the North Pacific basin, the number of atmospheric river days increases much more significantly in Alaska during spring because both increased moisture and increased wind speed gang up to increase the frequency of atmospheric rivers.

«All climate models show that as the climate warms, we should expect more frequent atmospheric river storms, which isn't good in California because it's almost like too much rain at one time,» she said.

The 2012 - 2013 water year was especially remarkable because it began rather early with a series of very intense and moist storms associated with «atmospheric rivers» in Northern California during November but then quickly tapered off, with only light and sporadic precipitation falling for the remainder of the typical «rainy» season from mid-December through May.

Because we may see really extreme precipitation events, with very powerful atmospheric rivers, that dump a ton of rain and put us in danger of devastating floods, we need to continue investing in our flood management infrastructure.