We've said goodbye to 2022 and ushered in the new year while witnessing a little history in the making out here in California. In the process, we've also been educated on some weather terms that we had only remotely heard of, but never experienced until now.
The entire state of California has been in an historical multi-year drought, with some parts of the state even classified as being in "extreme" drought conditions. Many of the state's large reservoirs have reached critical low levels of around 25% capacity, which have resulted in water restrictions, burn bans and threatened much of the state's huge agricultural production Thanks to the Pineapple Express creating an Atmospheric River that's resulted in one Bomb Cyclone after another this past week (and into the foreseeable future), the entire state of California is making tremendous strides towards ending the drought. Unfortunately, too much of a good thing can cause some issues, and there has been flooding, mudslides, downed trees and power outages in many locations.
Courtney Obergfell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service explained it this way. The Pineapple Express is a narrow band of moisture that originates in the tropics, which for California would be the Hawaiian Islands, hence the "pineapple" reference. It then forms a river like flow over the Pacific Ocean flowing westward towards the mainland, in this case California as well as the Pacific Northwest.
When there is a sudden and intense drop in air pressure in the presence of all this moisture...........bam........you've got yourself a bomb cyclone. Which in this case has resulted in a whole bunch of rain that started over a week ago and shows no sign of letting up over the next few days.
As native Floridians we've watched the development of hurricanes in the Atlantic. They develop slowly, give you several days to prepare, can be incredibly intense and then they're gone. While living in Texas we marveled at how rapidly thunderstorms would form that could produce large hail, tornados and heavy downpours. However, the Pineapple Express, Atmospheric River and Bomb Cyclones are totally different. There's been some high wind, a few heavy downpours but mainly it's just been rain, rain and more rain.
Since last Tuesday (December 27) there has probably been something falling from the sky about 60-70% of the time. When it's not raining, with the exception of New Years Day, it's looked like it could start back raining at any minute!
For us there is a lot of good news in all of this. First and foremost, the state of California is getting some much-needed rain and drought relief. We've spent enough time in this area that we've done most of the "touristy" stuff. We've had lots of time to enjoy Sarah, Joey, James and Emma (and Ben before he left). We've gotten a good education and can now speak a little more intelligently about the Pineapple Express, Atmospheric Rivers and Bomb Cyclones!
