On the night of January 4, wind speeds surpassed 100 miles per hour near Lake Tahoe. About 1 to 3 inches of rain fell on communities near Santa Cruz and San Francisco on the evening of January 4, but the storm continued to drop rain on the Bay Area as it moved east on January 5. Precipitable water vapor is the quantity of water in a column of the atmosphere if all of the water vapor were condensed into liquid. The image above was acquired on January 4, 2023, at 1:20 p.m. Pacific Standard Time by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite.
This map shows the overall precipitable water vapor in the atmosphere at 5:30 a.m. Pacific Standard Time on January 4, 2023. Precipitable water vapor is the quantity of water in a column of the atmosphere if all of the water vapor were condensed into liquid. Dark green locations on the map indicate a narrow band of moisture streaming from the tropical Pacific toward the West Coast, making this climatic river an example of a “Pineapple Express.” The image was originated from NASAs Goddard Earth Observing System, Atmospheric Data Assimilation System (GEOS ADAS), which uses satellite information and designs of physical procedures to determine what is happening in the environment.
The series of climatic rivers drenching California in recent days might be seen as a welcome relief to the states persistent drought. Climatic rivers take place routinely in winter season, and they represent as much as 50 percent of all rain and snow that falls in the western United States. The fast succession of atmospheric rivers leaves communities more prone to flooding and might cause landslides.
January 4, 2023.
The image above was gotten on January 4, 2023, at 1:20 p.m. Pacific Standard Time by the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) on the NOAA-20 satellite. When air pressure in a mid-latitude cyclone quickly drops and winds heighten, these storms can undergo a process meteorologists call bombogenesis.
Downed power lines added to leaving over 170,000 homes without electricity since the early morning of January 5, according to PowerOutage.us. Most of the outages were seen in seaside counties such as Mendocino, Sonoma, and San Mateo.
Climatic rivers are among the most harmful storm enters the middle latitudes, especially with regard to the hazardous wind they produce, according to research led by Duane Waliser at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Waliser and colleagues examined the most harmful windstorms of the last 20 years– the top 2 percent in regards to wind speeds near Earths surface– and found that atmospheric rivers were connected with as much as half of these storms.
As Californians tidied up from this latest storm system, the National Weather Services Weather Prediction Center anticipated more atmospheric rivers to reach the state on January 7 and 9, 2023.
NASA Earth Observatory images by Lauren Dauphin, utilizing GEOS-5 data from the Global Modeling and Assimilation Office at NASA GSFC and VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).
Overall Precipitable Water Vapor on January 4, 2023
The most recent in a series of atmospheric rivers drenching the state was accompanied by harmful winds and left thousands of individuals without power.
Just 4 days after heavy rain hit California, the state was soaked with another atmospheric river on January 4 and 5, 2023. A plume of wetness from the tropical Pacific connected with a low-pressure system that rapidly reinforced over the northeast Pacific, producing a storm that caused flooding, toppled trees, and downed power lines.
On the evening of January 4, wind speeds went beyond 100 miles per hour near Lake Tahoe. About 1 to 3 inches of rain fell on communities near Santa Cruz and San Francisco on the evening of January 4, but the storm continued to drop rain on the Bay Area as it moved east on January 5.
