Calm Before the Next Storm

Actually, it is a series of storms, progged to hit us every day this week but Thursday, starting late tonight/early tomorrow.

And this gorgeous shot is by Lisa Kleissner.

Thanks for sharing, Lisa!

Atmospheric River

Graphic and great article from Scientific American blog

The flow pattern of the atmospheric river now battering the West Coast is classic. The University of Wisconsin at Madison maintains a terrific Web site that shows the flows in real time, updated every five minutes. A snapshot from last night is below. The dark red swath across the equator is the tropical rain band that is usually present; the atmospheric river is the sweeping jet of water vapor (blue in the image) that shoots off towards the U.S.

University of Wisconsin website