In the News Now: Megastorms Could Drown Massive Portions of California

Scientific American article makes case for understanding the source of epic flooding

Mike Dettinger, a climate researcher with a dual appointment at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and the U.S. Geological Survey, co-authored an article in Scientific American on the emerging understanding of atmospheric rivers, a weather pattern that concentrates water vapor into dense “rivers” in the sky. The storms, one variety of which is widely known as “Pineapple Express,” have caused catastrophic flooding throughout history in California and other regions prone to them. With co-author B. Lynn Ingram of UC Berkeley, Dettinger makes the case that California is overdue for another major event in “Megastorms Could Drown Massive Portions of California.”