also, PLEASE BE WARNED, as soon as the snow melt starts to hit, cali is gonna be SCREWED. the snow pack is massive this year, over 2 times average in some places...check these links out!!!!

[link to urbanearth.gps.caltech.edu]

this one is the USGS 'disaster scenario and warning' about what they are calling ARkstorm. clip to MAKE YOU click the link and read it all:

"The nontechnical term “Pineapple Express” is popularly used to describe the meteorological phenomenon that causes moisture to be drawn from the Pacific Ocean near the equator and transported to the U.S. West Coast with firehose-like ferocity. Atmospheric rivers are embedded within much broader atmospheric storms referred to technically as “extratropical cyclones” (ECs). ECs are the winter-time analogue to hurricanes, but have much different structure. Also, they gain their energy largely from the pole-to-equator temperature contrast, unlike hurricanes, which draw their energy from ocean surface heat content. ARs are the business end of ECs because where the AR hits the mountains it can create extreme precipitation, flooding and high winds. In terms of impacts, an AR is to the broader EC it is embedded within, as the hurricane eyewall is to the broader hurricane of which it is a part. The importance and structure of ARs has become recognized recently through new satellite data and field experiments."

and about the flooding potential:

[link to www.ecoworld.com]

google california super storm.

“Our storms really are as bad as hurricanes in the amount of rain that they can bring,” USGS Director Marcia McNutt said, according to ABC. “Without that type of labeling, we haven’t recognized that our storms are that bad and we risk underestimating emergency response (to storms).”

Climate scientists have long linked rising temperatures to intense weather events like the potential ARkStorm. As the earth’s atmosphere gets hotter, it stores more energy, setting off more extreme weather events with greater frequency.

Scientists say they are able to monitor the ARs with satellite imagery that has improved in the last few years, the New York Times reports.

They estimate that the AR that set off an intense storm over California last month moved water at 20 times the rate of the Mississippi River discharging water into the Gulf.