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Snow Level Characteristics and Impacts of a Spring Typhoon-originating Atmospheric River in the Sierra Nevada, USA
Version 1
: Received: 24 May 2018 / Approved: 24 May 2018 / Online: 24 May 2018 (05:53:39 CEST)
A peer-reviewed article of this Preprint also exists.
Hatchett, B.J. Snow Level Characteristics and Impacts of a Spring Typhoon-Originating Atmospheric River in the Sierra Nevada, USA. Atmosphere 2018, 9, 233. Hatchett, B.J. Snow Level Characteristics and Impacts of a Spring Typhoon-Originating Atmospheric River in the Sierra Nevada, USA. Atmosphere 2018, 9, 233.
Abstract
On 5-7 April 2018 a landfalling atmospheric river resulted in widespread heavy precipitation in the Sierra Nevada of California and Nevada. Observed snow levels during this event were among the highest snow levels recorded since observations began in 2002 and exceeded 2.75 km for 31 hours in the northern Sierra Nevada and 3.75 km for 12 hours in the southern Sierra Nevada. The anomalously high snow levels and over 80 mm of precipitation caused flooding, debris flows, and wet snow avalanches in the upper elevations of the Sierra Nevada. The origin of this atmospheric river was super typhoon Jelawat, whose moisture remnants were entrained and maintained by an extratropical cyclone in the northeast Pacific. This event was notable due to its April occurrence, as six other typhoon remnants that caused heavy precipitation with high snow levels (mean = 2.92 km) in the northern Sierra Nevada all occurred during October.
Keywords
atmospheric river; avalanche; debris flow; flooding; snow level; typhoon
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Atmospheric Science and Meteorology
Copyright: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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