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WTF is an Atmospheric River?

February 6, 2024
We spoke with Spectrum Networks Meteorologist Sally Jaramillo to find out what is an “Atmospheric River” and why these kinds of persistent rainfalls have caused a blackout for hundreds of thousands of Californians while putting 38 million on alert for flash floods.
the details
California is currently experiencing a “Pineapple Express,” a powerful atmospheric river that has brought water from the tropics near Hawaii. Atmospheric rivers are long thin regions in the sky that carry the equivalent water...
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Show transcript
00:01
Can you see the turkey in my teeth?
00:03
No, you're fine.
00:04
You see other shit dog.
00:06
Jeez. This weather is something else for real.
00:11
It's like our parents say,
00:13
Vien loco loco, you know us Californians.
00:16
Well, southern Californians,
00:17
we're all like, I get excited.
00:18
Like when I see on the app that it's gonna rain for
00:21
like 40 street, I'm like,
00:22
oh my God, it's so cozy.
00:23
You know, like it's so cozy like we ain't built for
00:26
this. Like look outside the streets are flooded.
00:29
Beaches. I saw Tesla stuck on like the meeting of the
00:32
road. I, I don't think they could see everything.
00:33
So they just like,
00:34
I think we're here.
00:38
It's crazy. Did you get the alert on your phone?
00:41
I got the alert last night.
00:43
And it was so funny because my mom calls me,
00:44
she goes, Mija,
00:49
you have to go in like we're shooting a show woman.
00:51
I gotta go in.
00:52
I mean, so the rain is crazy.
00:54
The the mudslides but also 38 million people under the foot alert
00:56
Like you like we all got the alert and landslides too
00:59
So there was a landslide over there by where I live
01:01
too where the, it's because the houses are a little on
01:03
hills. So I like,
01:05
it's kind of scary.
01:06
I'm like, oh my God,
01:07
weird flex. But ok,
01:09
I mean, what do you mean?
01:11
No, no, not like that.
01:13
You got it like that.
01:14
But,, this is one thing I've been hearing,
01:17
you know, tossed around on social and in the news that
01:20
atmospheric River. Do you know what that means?
01:24
Well, I don't either.
01:26
So luckily we have Sally Jaramillo from Spectrum News.
01:31
Luckily we have Sally Jaramillo from the Spectrum Network.
01:34
What the sorry, sorry,
01:36
Sally. Yeah, it's,
01:37
it's the, the teleprompter.
01:39
We have Sally Jaramillo,
01:41
a Spectrum Network, meteorologist joining us to break down this atmospheric
01:44
pressure term. I've been seeing this big,
01:49
these two big words where I'm like atmospheric atmospheric pressure.
01:53
What does that mean?
01:55
Ok. So the word is atmospheric river,
01:57
right? And to be honest with you,
02:00
it's basically a river in the sky that can go 1000 miles
02:04
long. So, so just in within last year,
02:08
I think we've already tracked about nine atmospheric rivers.
02:11
So just think of it like a big river coming through that's
02:15
hitting the mountains, but it is very steady and it's bringing
02:19
steady rain. You know,
02:20
we're all getting to see the impacts of flooded roadways of debris
02:25
on the road, strong dusty winds and we're all gonna
02:29
be impacted and as the temperatures get hotter,
02:31
just get ready for more atmospheric rivers and,
02:35
and Sally, where can people find you?
02:37
You can find me on Sally J TV.
02:39
That's my social media platform,
02:41
Sally Carillo. Thank you so much,
02:43
Sally. everyone stay safe as you heard and hopefully
02:47
we can talk soon to get an update after the rain some
02:52
Ok.