Climate Fact: Atmospheric Rivers and Precipitation in the West
Coast  Did you know that rivers exist in the air? Atmospheric
rivers—the Amazons of the air—are vast and unbroken streams of
wind that carry water vapor from tropical oceans, moving
thousands of miles through the sky. Scientists discovered them
in 1998, when they noticed that water vapor traveled from the
tropics into mid-latitudes in narrow and intense bands of air.
Atmospheric rivers are massive not only in their geographical
extent, but in the amount of water vapor they transport. A
typical atmospheric river is about 250 miles wide and one mile
high, and carries as much moisture as seven to 15 Mississippi
Rivers or one Amazon River. You may have heard of the Pineapple
Express, a subset of atmospheric rivers originating in the
waters near Hawaii that travels to the Pacific coast of North
America.  Atmospheric rivers can rain themselves out over the
oceans, but many travel over continents, bringing moisture. When
atmospheric rivers sweep warm and