[californiadisasters] San Diego To Get Better Warning Of Severe Storms

San Diego to get better warning of severe storms

Written by Gary Robbins - San Diego Union-Tribune
8:31 p.m., Dec. 3, 2012 - Updated 9:32 p.m.

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography and its partners will create four sophisticated weather stations along the California coast to provide earlier and more accurate warnings of potentially damaging "pineapple express" storms.

The term refers to the rivers of moisture that sometimes travel through the atmosphere from near the Hawaiian islands to Southern California and other parts of the state, causing flooding and mudslides. The pineapple express can extend all the way to the Pacific Northwest.

At times, the subtropical moisture combines with precipitation from the Gulf of Alaska, producing unusually strong and persistent storms that play out over Southern California. These two sources of moisture came together in San Diego County in December 2010, producing a week of rain that flooded Qualcomm Stadium, nearly disrupting the Poinsettia Bowl football game.

The National Weather Service forecasts and monitors winter storms approaching from the ocean. But the new network of stations to be situated in Bodega Bay, Goleta, Eureka and Point Sur will be equipped to look more precisely at the atmospheric rivers that form the basis of the pineapple express. The network is being assembled by Scripps, NOAA and the California Department of Water Resources, which will use radar and sensors to track the birth, growth, girth, composition and direction of these systems. Soil moisture sensors also will be placed at dozens of places across California to help predict where flooding might occur.

Michael Dettinger, a researcher who works for Scripps and the U.S. Geological Survey, said in a statement, "These soil moisture sensors are key to anticipating whether an incoming storm will produce heavy runoff or if much of the rain will be absorbed in the soil."

Source: http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/03/san-diego-get-better-warning-severe-storms/?sciquest

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