Look what the weather fairies brought for me today. From local Weather Rock-star Cliff Mass:
A Strong Atmosphere River Approaches
The most powerful atmospheric river of the season so far is now imminent and will reach our coast later tomorrow (Monday).
Atmospheric rivers are fascinating creatures. Why does atmosphere concentrate water vapor into fast moving narrow currents? And why do such currents provide such bountiful precipitation and are so optimal for promoting floods and landslides? These questions are among those that I and others have researched over the past decades and pretty much understand.
Below is a graphic showing the key parameter that characterizes atmosphere rivers, something called Integrated Water Vapor Transport (IVT),that is forecast for Monday night at 10 PM. IVT is essentially the magnitude of the water vapor being moved by the atmospheric. Mathematically, water vapor constant times wind speed.
In this figure, the blue areas are locations with very high values of IVT (over 800 in the units shown)
Looks like Portland and Southwest WA will get hit the most but we will certainly get wet up here. Looks actually OK for moving this afternoon - it will hit here late today/early tomorrow. Got another one coming in Wednesday morning. The fun never stops around here...
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