Northern California and the Pacific Northwest are about to get hosed by a veritable gusher of atmospheric moisture, promising a modicum of relief to a region suffering from profound drought. You can see the river of moisture, sometimes called the "Pineapple Express," in the animation above from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies. It shows total precipitable water, the amount of water vapor from Earth's surface to the top of the atmosphere, as measured by satellites from Tuesday through today. Parts of California have already been affected, but much more is on the way. Here's another view of what's been heading toward the West Coast — the latest water vapor imagery from the GOES-West weather satellite:
GOES weather satellite image from 2/7/14 showing California getting hosed by a river of water vapor. (Source: NOAA) To my eye, it looks like the region is about to get hosed. And the ...
