The recent storm in Southern California has people sharing photos and videos on social media, discussing how intense the heavy rain is. Among that discussion, people have been using terms like “Pineapple Express,” “Atmospheric River” and even “ARkStorm.”
An ARkStorm is a type of atmospheric river. Atmospheric rivers are “relatively long, narrow regions in the atmosphere – like rivers in the sky.” ARkStorm’s on the other hand are basically a worst case scenario megastorm that was developed as a weather model in 2011. They are a “hypothetical but plausible extreme storm & flood scenario” for California.
Scientists took to social media to debunk theories that some believed that the storm coming to Southern California was an ARkStorm.
The current California atmospheric river (AR) storm is not an ARkStorm.
ARs are a type of storm that bring in much of the rain in California. ARkStorm is AR 1000(k), the very rare AR that lasts for so long that it overwhelms our flood control capacity. Learn more in thread— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) February 5, 2024
Bottom line: All ARkStorms are atmospheric rivers but not all atmospheric rivers are ARkStorms. The biggest storms become big and devastating because they last for weeks. Imagine this week being repeated all month long. That’s an ARkStorm
— Dr. Lucy Jones (@DrLucyJones) February 5, 2024
6) But, importantly, ARkStorm scenarios involve *much longer, more severe, and more widespread storm sequence than is currently occurring.*
Good news? Feb 2024 isn’t an ARK2-like scenario. Bad news? A real such occurrence would be much worse.!#CAwater https://t.co/z5n9h3IjpM
— Dr. Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) February 5, 2024
Are we really doing another ARKstorm tweet again? This was senseless the first time around and senseless again. Please leave this messaging to the pro’s as there are nuances to understanding the real threat vs the imagined. This is imaginary at this point.
— NPD_MAWACA (@NPD_DNP) February 5, 2024
Online chatter about an #arkstorm hitting CA soon… debunked… for now. @DrLucyJones says arkstorms happen, on average, every 200-300 years.
The last one was 1862.“What happened in 1862 is the rain didn’t stop.”@USGS video explains what would happen@fergusonbj @Cal_OES pic.twitter.com/vFchf4S3G1
— MarlaTellez (@MarlaTellez) February 2, 2024
Here’s a tangible problem with exaggerated “ArkStorm might be coming” messaging:
Lots of folks, including community leaders, are now saying “Whew! We just weathered the ARkStorm okay!”
Except…they didn’t! This is not an ARkStorm-level event–but many folks now think it was.
— Dr. Daniel Swain (@Weather_West) February 5, 2024
What we just saw was *not* an ARkStorm, folks. https://t.co/jIniW7B1zs
— Deirdre Des Jardins💧🔥💨 (@flowinguphill) February 5, 2024
Some people also made light of the heavy weather and poked fun at ARkStorm hysteria.
ARkStorm 2024.
We will rebuild. pic.twitter.com/CDFElEc877— Crystal Heath DVM (@drcrystalheath) February 5, 2024