4 ms·

Let's hope it migrates further south and relieves some of the California drought. Any meteorologists have a sense of the weather patterns at play here?

cbsks 5y ago
According to this meteorologist “Drier-than-average winter still most likely outcome for most of California” https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748 https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748
- mmgutz 5y ago
  Average winter seems a distant memory in Cali.
  - ctrager 5y ago
    2017 and 2019 were big Sierra snowpack years, double average. I don't mean this to be a comment on long term trends.
waiseristy 5y ago
Typically it's snowpack that relieves drought. All torrential rain does is remove topsoil and blow out bridges
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  Torrential rain can replace water in underground aquifers. But there is only so much water that can be absorbed by the ground, much of it just rushes out to sea.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
lhorie 5y ago
Oh, the atmospheric river did hit California, and pretty hard in some places. Last month was the wettest October on record here in San Francisco. The area around Dixie (where there was a big fire earlier this year) saw landslides. According to a podcast I listened to, this pattern might actually be bad because alternating cycles of extreme rain and extreme dryness means more vegetation growth during the wet months which in turn means more fuel to burn during the dry months.
- AutumnCurtain 5y ago
  The loss of established growth hurts in the rainy season too as landslides worsen. In our local San Bernardino mountains here burn patches quickly turn to land or mudslides.
mrtnmcc 5y ago
It looks like we will be in another La Nina year, which means wetter northwest and drier southwest.. unfortunately. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-drought.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-dro...
- akiselev 5y ago
  That's not saying much anymore - the systems getting more and more unpredictable. The last La Nina was also supposed to worsen the ongoing drought but ended up dumping so much water that the state of emergency (or whatever its called) was withdrawn that March. IIRC it did dry out the San Diego area a bit, where the drought wasn't as bad.

cbsks 5y ago

According to this meteorologist “Drier-than-average winter still most likely outcome for most of California” https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748 https://weatherwest.com/archives/11748

mmgutz 5y ago
Average winter seems a distant memory in Cali.
- ctrager 5y ago
  2017 and 2019 were big Sierra snowpack years, double average. I don't mean this to be a comment on long term trends.

waiseristy 5y ago

Typically it's snowpack that relieves drought. All torrential rain does is remove topsoil and blow out bridges

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
Torrential rain can replace water in underground aquifers. But there is only so much water that can be absorbed by the ground, much of it just rushes out to sea.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

lhorie 5y ago

Oh, the atmospheric river did hit California, and pretty hard in some places. Last month was the wettest October on record here in San Francisco. The area around Dixie (where there was a big fire earlier this year) saw landslides. According to a podcast I listened to, this pattern might actually be bad because alternating cycles of extreme rain and extreme dryness means more vegetation growth during the wet months which in turn means more fuel to burn during the dry months.

AutumnCurtain 5y ago
The loss of established growth hurts in the rainy season too as landslides worsen. In our local San Bernardino mountains here burn patches quickly turn to land or mudslides.

mrtnmcc 5y ago

It looks like we will be in another La Nina year, which means wetter northwest and drier southwest.. unfortunately. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-drought.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/16/us/la-nina-california-dro...

akiselev 5y ago
That's not saying much anymore - the systems getting more and more unpredictable. The last La Nina was also supposed to worsen the ongoing drought but ended up dumping so much water that the state of emergency (or whatever its called) was withdrawn that March. IIRC it did dry out the San Diego area a bit, where the drought wasn't as bad.