'Atmospheric River' Heading for California

[Frodo]

Good news for our California residents:

Heavy Rain, Feet of Snow Target California as "Miracle March" Atmospheric River Weather Pattern Arrives

Mar 4 2016 08:00 AM EST
By Chris Dolce
weather.com

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[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, f**k.

[Joe Republic]

Well, f**k.

"Ugh, I can't believe we're, like, supposed to cut down our, like, water usage n' stuff.  It's so, like, degrading?"

"Ew, it's raining.  This is literally the worst?"

[dead0man]

Enjoy your mudslides!

[Fmr President & Senator Polnut]

Whereas we're now in autumn and this summer won't f***ing die.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Maybe the next update won't be so droughty.

[Antonio the Sixth]

Well, f**k.

"Ugh, I can't believe we're, like, supposed to cut down our, like, water shortage n' stuff.  It's so, like, degrading?"

"Ew, it's raining.  This is literally the worst?"

Flattered you gave me the full Californian dialect!

I'm not quite there yet, but I'm, like, working on it.

[Ban my account ffs!]

The pattern is changing to offer wet conditions for California at least for the next few weeks.

Whereas we have seen a western ridge and eastern trough for much of January and February, that is now reversing.  This will bring storms into California and across the inner-mountain west which then move into the central Plains and drag lots of moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico. 

Enough cool, dry air will slip down the plains to allow severe weather to flare up there as low pressure spins across the plains.  Meanwhile, very heavy rain will hit the lower MIssissippi valley and the entire eastern U.S. will see very mild, wet conditions.  Further down the road, early severe weather could be seen across the central U.S. and Ohio valley region.

While winter will continue for the mountain west, spring fever will definitely be felt across all of the eastern U.S.

[DINGO Joe]

Usually we'll get something like this in April or May in Louisiana.  March is a bit early.

[Citizen (The) Doctor]

Driving through this was absolute crap this past weekend. Freedom rain though.

[Frodo]

It seems this El Nino has more or less fulfilled California's hopes by delivering a healthy snowpack and replenishing reservoirs especially in its northern half, denting (at least temporarily) its long-term drought:

Near Normal Snowpack in Most of the West:
Parts of the Southwest remain dry

http://www.wcc.nrcs.usda.gov/ftpref/downloads/wsf/201604wsfwww.pdf