Atmospheric Rivers

This is Tim Hammerich of the Ag Information Network with your Farm of the Future Report.

Parts of the western United States continue to be hit with record flooding, wind storms, and atmospheric rivers. Meteorologists are calling for more of this activity headed into Christmas week. USDA meteorologist Brad Rippey goes over both the definition and examples of atmospheric rivers.

Rippey… “ An atmospheric river is simply when you have an upper level transport at the jet stream level, you see moisture transport into a particular region. When you combine that with other factors, including the topography of the northwest, you can bring some of that moisture down to cloud level to lower levels. And then start to wring it out on the mountains. So when you know west to east wind blowing across, say the Cascades or the Northern Rockies, a lot of that moisture can work its way first from the upper atmosphere into the lower levels of the atmosphere, and then be rung out by the topography, especially when it's perpendicular to the mountain ranges. You have north, south ranges like Cascades. You have a west to east jet stream that we have heard lately is being termed an atmospheric river, great term for it, and that rings out tremendous amounts of moisture.”

While it’s too early to assess the damage to perennial crops of this flooding and wind, it’s likely to be significant for farmers in some of these areas.