Atmospheric river

A powerful atmospheric river storm is currently heading towards the U.S., highlighting the significance of this weather phenomenon in water vapor transport and precipitation patterns.

About the Atmospheric River:

• The Atmospheric River represents a narrow corridor of concentrated moisture in the atmosphere that acts like rivers in the sky, transporting most of the water vapor outside the tropical regions.
• When atmospheric rivers make landfall, they release this water vapor as rain or snow, and are crucial for water supply despite sometimes causing damage.
• Also referred to as tropical plume, and moisture plume.
• Pineapple Express, is one of its types that originates from the Hawaiian tropics.
• These systems flow along the boundaries between divergent surface air flows, including frontal zones and extratropical cyclones over oceans.
• Atmospheric rivers, responsible for 90% of the moisture movement from the tropics toward the poles, are the largest transporters of freshwater on Earth, with their occurrences being more frequent on the East Coast than the West Coast, especially during winter.

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