One of the weather world’s biggest buzzwords expands its reach
For people on the West Coast, atmospheric rivers, a weather phenomenon that can bring heavy rain or snow from San Diego to Vancouver, are as common a feature of winter as Nor’easters are in Boston. … But it is also a specific meteorological phenomenon that describes the moisture-rich storms that develop over the Pacific Ocean and dump precipitation when they collide with the mountain ranges of Washington, Oregon and California. These plumes of exceptionally wet air transported through the atmosphere by strong winds are not unique to the West Coast, though. They occur around the world, and a growing number of meteorologists and scientists are beginning to apply the term to storms east of the Rocky Mountains.
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