Vineyards and communities were underwater from Washington State to Northern California again last week leading up to Thanksgiving due to another atmospheric river, the first of the season. Literally, a river of moisture in the atmosphere, accompanied by a bomb cyclone has inundated vineyards and left more than 100,000 homes without power. They say the vines are resilient enough to recover, but not if it keeps happening. They are calling it a once in a thousand years event. CBS News ran a major report.
The term “atmospheric river” first appeared in modern scientific literature in the early 1990s. Prior to that, the phenomenon was called a "warm conveyor belt". According to climate scientists, the frequency and intensity of atmospheric rivers are increasing in California, causing an increase in severe rainfall events.
The silver lining in these clouds is that all the rainfall has finally eased the drought, restoring water levels in the reservoirs throughout the region.
Meanwhile, the East Coast is bracing for potentially record-breaking snowfall from the Mid-Atlantic region through New England over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.