During winter 2016/17, California experienced numerous heavy precipitation events linked to land-falling atmospheric rivers (ARs) that filled reservoirs and ended a severe, multiyear drought. These events also caused floods, mudslides, and debris flows, resulting in major socioeconomic disruptions. During 2–11 February 2017, persistent heavy precipitation in the northern Sierra Nevada culminated in a rapid increase in the water level on Lake Oroville, necessitating the activation of an emergency spillway for the first time since the Oroville Dam was installed and forcing the evacuation of 188,000 people. The precipitation, which mostly fell as rain due to elevated freezing levels, was focused on the western slope of the Sierra Nevada in connection with orographic forcing linked to two successive ARs. Heavy rain fell on saturated soils and a snowpack produced by antecedent storms and thereby resulted in excessive runoff into Lake Oroville that led to a damaged spillway and complicated reservoir operations.
Forecast uncertainty associated with the prediction of snowfall amounts is a complex superposition of the uncertainty about precipitation amounts and ...
Stratification of the upper few meters of the ocean limits the penetration depth of wind mixing and the vertical distribution of atmospheric fluxes. S...
From the earliest observations of ozone in the lower atmosphere in the 19th century, both measurement methods and the portion of the globe observed ha...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 13439-13456
Description:
We present airborne observations of the vertical gradient of atmospheric oxygen (δ (O2/N2)) and carbon dioxide (CO2) through the atmospheric boundary...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 7413–7428
Description:
Deep convection can transport surface moisture and pollution from the planetary boundary layer to the upper troposphere (UT) within a few minutes. The...
An intensive coordinated airborne and ground-based measurement study was conducted in the Fayetteville Shale in northwestern Arkansas during September...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 12141-12156
Description:
Ice crystals commonly adopt a horizontal orientation under certain aerodynamic and electrodynamic conditions that occur in the atmosphere. While the r...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 13576-13592
Description:
Accuracy of cloud predictions in numerical weather models can considerably impact ozone (O-3) forecast skill. This study assesses the benefits in surf...
The ozonesonde is a small balloon-borne instrument that is attached to a standard radiosonde to measure profiles of ozone from the surface to 35 km wi...
2019 | Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 1061-1069.
Description:
Convective systems dominate the vertical transport of aerosols and trace gases. The most recent in situ aerosol measurements presented here show that ...
2019 | Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 1113-1120.
Description:
Two recent studies using sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) observations to evaluate interhemispheric transport in two different ensembles of atmospheric chemi...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124, 57-71
Description:
Arctic clouds can profoundly influence surface radiation and thus surface melt. Over Greenland, these cloud radiative effects (CRE) vary greatly with ...
In 2015 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) initiated a 4-yr study, the Second Wind Forecast Improvement Project (WFIP2), to improve the representatio...
2019 | J. Appl. Meteor. Climatol. (2019) 58 (8): 1867–1886
Description:
Measurements from spaceborne sensors have the unique capacity to fill spatial and temporal gaps in ground-based atmospheric observing systems, especia...
Wind power installations have been increasing in recent years. Because wind turbines can influence local wind speeds, temperatures, and surface fluxes...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 124(12), 6104-6119
Description:
The width of the tropical Hadley circulation (HC) has garnered intense interest in recent decades, owing to the emerging evidence for its expansion in...
2019 | Geophysical Research Letters, 46, 2242-2252.
Description:
The double Intertropical Convergence Zone bias remains a persistent problem in coupled general circulation model simulations. Due to the strong sea su...
Data from ground-based ozone (O3) vertical profiling platforms operated during the FRAPPE/DISCOVER-AQ campaigns in summer 2014 were used to characteri...
2019 | Journal of Geophysical Research: Space Physics,;
Description:
The study investigates previously unrecognized wind reversals of the daytime thermosphere in the Southern Hemisphere at latitudes of 50 degrees S-70 d...
1991 | Eastern Region technical attachment (National Weather Service (U.S.)) ; no. 91-7A
Description:
"A very rare heavy snowfall event hit the southeast Atlantic coast on December 22-24, 1989. Snowfall amounts of 2 to 5 inches were reported across coa...
1991 | Eastern Region technical attachment (National Weather Service (U.S.)) ; no. 91-5B
Description:
"On 27-28 December 1990, a winter storm occurred over much of the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England states. A mixture of rain, freezing rain, and ...
Links with this icon indicate that you are leaving the NOAA website.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) cannot attest to the accuracy of a non-federal
website.
Linking to a non-federal Website does not constitute an
endorsement by NOAA or any of its employees of the sponsors
or the information and products presented on the website.
You will be subject to the destination website's privacy
policy when you follow the link.
NOAA is not responsible for Section 508 compliance
(accessibility) on other federal or private websites.