poles

What’s an atmospheric river? Here’s why B.C. is seeing floods, mudslides

What’s an atmospheric river? Here’s why B.C. is seeing floods, mudslides

The torrential rainfall that has pummeled British Columbia in recent days — causing mudslides and flooding, shutting down highways and stranding and displacing thousands — is being fuelled by an atmospheric river. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow bands of moisture in the atmosphere that carry water from the tropics and subtropics toward the poles.