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I first heard about the categories a few months ago

The term 'atmospheric river' was developed by MIT in 1994 to describe "concentrated bands of moisture" and became even more widely used by media after the "ranking system" was developed in 2019. So, no, you're not going crazy, the terms are relatively new, but the type of weather is not.

Used to be called the Pineapple Express.

Started to see info about 5 days ago. It's maybe 5 years ago I first saw the term.

It’s odd but not unusual. I’m another PNW guy.

Sounds pretty and it's descriptive... I didn't think anything about it Figured it was a 6-7 thing

The level of warning for atmospheric rivers is new; the event itself is not. You are paying attention; nothing wrong with seeking clarity. That is really what the web should be about, clarity and education. Not propaganda and lies.

They give them ratings now. Next, they’ll name them. Atmospheric River Bob is striking Seattle.

I will say, I spent a good deal of my life in Oklahoma and it was always called “atmospheric river” when this kind of rain came through.

It seems like it was Pineapple Express just a couple of years ago. Maybe with climate change they felt they needed to give it categories.

I heard godzilla atmospheric river on the weather yesterday.

I had not heard that there is a classification now, either. It's actually washing away my gravel driveway.

It's new. Get the lowdown on The Weather Channel...

I just googled it. It talks about the intensity of the storm. 5 is about as bad as it gets. Run for high ground

Geez- when I lived in Seattle we called it "rain."

I heard it the first time four years ago, when we moved from Northern British Columbia to Vancouver. Atmospheric rivers are heavy snowfalls in the north ;-) But it is a GROWING CONCERN!!!!

It reaches all the way to southeast Alaska

They used to use a belt system, eg blue, brown --this one would be black-- but it was too confusing

always here for eons ! someone doing their thesis for a PHD and some new electronic machine on the roof of the science building that measures wind speed divided the accumulated speed numbers into groups then Bobs your Uncle

I’ve never heard or seen the term until right now.

I thought it was called a “Pineapple Express” before it switched to Atmospheric River?

More environmental bullshit to induce climate anxiety … they obviously succeeded

Wait… there’s CATEGORIES? 😳

If only.....

What I hate is the 'feels-like' temperature. Just tell me the actual temperature, please.

one thing to consider is we've had the ability to measure wind speeds for a long time, and the hurricane categories are based off wind speed. recently we put a ton of fancy satellites into orbit which can see water moving through the atmosphere. so now we can start putting categories on severity.

You’re welcome, love from British Columbia.

We had a freight train of Atmospheric Rivers in Central California the winter of 2023. It was brutal, one after another every 3-5 days. I live on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, in the redwoods, and it was a wild ride!

If you're a bit of a science, nature, the planet nerd, 20 - 25 years ago, you would have heard of it. Has been mentioned - off and on for a while. Becoming more common now because they are happening more frequently. Lots of more severe weather coming from from now on.

Actually the term atmospheric river was coined in 1984 by 2 guys at MIT, replacing terms like "Pineapple Express." The numeric categorization started about six years ago. The global climate crisis began in the late 1800s with the advent of the Industrial Rwvolurion.

They've started color coding it, where I live. Got three yellow level rainfall warnings this week.

I know! We used to just call it rain.

I was in BC visiting my Canadian son for this one. Impressive. Up to that point I had never heard the phrase "atmospheric river".

New terminology.........don't ask me......this elder elder is stuck on simple terms for the weather. Such as hot, cold, rain, snow. wind.

Still rain to me… #OG

First time I heard it here in Portland

It was proposed 5-10 years ago by the group at Scripps

if you lived in indiana you would understand. its 12-09-2005 on indiana calendars rn

Clocks with my experience, as well.

More informed than me,, I only found out about atmospheric rivers 2-3 years ago.

Its all been a little confusing!!

Portland only has a category 3-4 atmospheric river Our traffic isn’t as bad as your either

It’s science learning

If memory servers, some speculate they (atmospheric rivers) were what led to the biblical (40 days, 40 nights) flood of Noah fame.

Sorry 2022!! 😅

The AR scale was developed in 2017: www.semanticscholar.org/paper/A-Scal...

Well, the emergency alert keeps alerting us to major flooding so anything "river" seems appropriate right now.

Yup! I remember it as the pineapple express!

I used to be a wet sider, I miss it.

My family is on the dry side - very similar weather this year!

Hello they were blamed on Hawaii...

I looked it up because yeah! Anywho Pineapple Express is a type of Atmospheric River - like a square is a type of rectangle. So now I have a new annoying nerd fact expression.

I remember the local news weather peeps calling the systems that 20+ years ago. It was always bad news for the ski resorts as snow levels are usually above 6,000 ft.

Time travel is real.

Berenstain...

"Pineapple Express" refers to the jet stream pasing over Hawaii on its way here. This one was farther north, and west, passing over the Philippines. Hence the name change.

I haven't heard of it. I only know barometric pressure.

I think we have a large earthquake in Alaska almost simultaneously as a large solar flare hit the Pacific Ocean and Kilauea shot up a large 3 plumed fountain and other volcanos erupted at the same time. Sounds like an atmospheric phenomena...

Rain. Wind. That’s all I have to say.

Rain in Seattle?

Funny, that seems recent-ish. I lived there 17 years and never saw one, but I left in 1997. Lots can happen (and evidently did) in that time. Did experience an earthquake though...

It’s Alaska pissing on you.

Good question. Ive never heard the category either.

The threat is river flooding near towns in Western Washington, not Seattle.

winter is when the sun tilts away from you & you get less light & heat. polar vortex is when you get arctic air.

That is not the same. The polar vortex is extended south by the ncreasing meandet of the slowing wind speeds, which again slows because of a warmer climate. Summer AND winter. This includes heat waves.

We got some of those when we lived in Ohio. It's a bad as it sounds. Not like regular winter storms, or temps.

All I know is down here in Portland it is raining sideways, and my dogs and I got soaked to the skin on our walk this morning. Fun times.

New to me, but we HAVE been getting a shit ton of rain lately

Just wait. They'll start naming them next.

Look down at your feet and you'll see it. Ain't the rain awesome. Our annual lesson for those who built in a river valley.

This is one of the ridiculous terms that insecure meteorologists now use to make themselves seem more clever than they are, when they use descriptives like bomb cyclone or polar vortex and words like "category". I once saw Brad Pitt do a weather report where he looked out the window and said "Yep".

I'm in Oregon and wondered this same thing today when I heard 3 people say it. I guess everything is an atmospheric river now

Brutal!

New.

They used to be called “pineapple expresses” but we discovered they don’t all come from Hawaii. Not sure about the category thing, might be one forecaster’s way of saying this one is a monster (have you seen how long it is?).

Cat 5 = "More harm than good" mynorthwest.com/pacific-nort...

If you use a Windows/PC, type ALT+0241 (Hold the ALT and type the numbers) for an ñ.

Where I live in Virginia, last Friday and yesterday we had freezing fog.

Thank you!

Thank you! It's always interesting to see which of these terms get picked up on in the media.

I just remembered an even older term that my papa and grandma used and they called this kind of warm sustained wind and rain storm a chinook wind or chinook storm

Used to be Pineapple Express but Atmospheric River is the more precise term. The last one that hit us this hard caused the flooding in 2021

I am 76, live in Portland and first heard this a couple years ago! When I grew up, it was, you can expect very heavy rains and possibly strong winds!

Same. Lived in the PNW forever and started hearing the phrase a couple of years ago. BUT Godzilla Atmospheric River is indeed a new one.

I guess it's a thing now

If I can trust google AI, the scale came out in 2019:

We always call it the Pineapple Express.

The Murder Hornets have gone dark and are having secret meetings with the Orcas in undisclosed locations.

They, too are sometimes carried aloft...

lol

Murder hornets is actually a rare success story! They successfully did eradicate them so not in the news anymore. All the hype actually did good

Its new to me. My wife kept saying CAT5 I asked, cat5 what?

Agree. They were not defined in that way before.

It's been used a lot in California.

It doesn't look like a river to me, like when they talk about it coming from the southwest. It looks like your typical huge winter storm coming out of the north pacific.

I’ve only seen it on the Weather Channel the last year or so. But the scale they showed was interesting on the impacts of each level as far as mud slides, etc.

That's an Accuweather thing. F them.

Atmospheric river = it's going to rain a lot, and then rain some more... and rain and rain and rain...

This is awesome and can’t wait to look into these. Really appreciate the effort and kindness! 🙏🏻

Is John’s Place still good for breakfast?

Been to villa eyrie not a lot of seating.

In my (younger days) in Vancouver we would call hard and driving rain, the Pineapple Express as the rain from south (Hawaii) would soak Vancouver. Perhaps this was very local term, but when I use it now people look at me a little confused.