Northern California and Pacific Northwest brace for atmospheric river

Associated Press

SEATTLE (AP) — Northern California and the Pacific Northwest are bracing for what is expected to be the strongest storm of the season so far. Heavy rain and winds are set to pummel the region and potentially cause power outages and flash floods. The Weather Prediction Center issued excessive rainfall risks beginning Tuesday and lasting through Friday as the strongest atmospheric river — long plumes of moisture stretching far over the Pacific Ocean — that California and the Pacific Northwest has seen this season bears down on the region. The storm system has intensified so quickly that it is considered a “bomb cyclone.”