Volcano? Climate change? Bad luck? – the Los Angeles Times

April 17, 2023 Air Mass RGB imagery courtesy of NOAA.

As winter approached, few anticipated what was about to hit California. Mired in a serious drought, the state was suddenly battered by an onslaught of 31 atmospheric river storms in a matter of months. While the number alone isn’t exceptional, the location, intensity and duration of these storms had a transforming effect on California’s climate. Record snowfall. Deadly flooding…But one thing remains a mystery: Why did so many of these bands of water vapor, many back-to-back, slam into California?

Bomb cyclone, atmospheric river, polar vortex: How our weather terminology has grown with recent wild storms – the Los Angeles Times

March 31 - April 1, 2023 Satellite animation showing weather patterns off the coast of California (courtesy of NOAA)

Californians have been warned over the past few months about weather ranging from a “vicious heat dome” to back-to-back “atmospheric rivers,” and the always-concerning “bomb cyclone.” While it might feel as though recent weather has been dominated by a string of new phenomena, experts say these terms and events are well-established in the scientific world but simply novel to much of general public…

Mass storm outages bring misery across California, exposing power grid’s vulnerabilities – the Los AngelesTimes

Wind damage on Highland Avenue in Santa Cruz © 2023 Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel

David Higares was on his fourth day without power in his Morada home in San Joaquin County when he woke up to indoor temperatures barely above 50 degrees.

His lights had flickered twice since his neighborhood outside Stockton went dark Saturday, following one of the train of atmospheric river storms, but his home remained dark, he said. Each time he checked, it seemed Pacific Gas & Electric had again pushed back the estimate for restoring power.

“It feels endless at this point,” said Higares, who lost all the food in his refrigerator and freezer due to spoilage. “Basically, we’re camping indoors.”

Since New Year’s Eve, hundreds of thousands of Californians have lost power — many multiple times…