Getting Inside California’s

artappraiser — Sun, 15 Jan 2023 07:34:19 +0000

In reply to Drenching Rains Create Hazards Across Oversaturated California

Getting Inside California’s Wild Weather 8 Miles Over the Pacific

A Times reporter and photographer rode along with a team gathering data on the colossal atmospheric rivers that have drenched the state.

By Raymond Zhong, Photographs by Erin Schaff,, Jan. 14, 2023

ABOARD A GULFSTREAM IV, over the Pacific — The winter storms pounding California this month have often come into being thousands of miles to the west, in the moist air above the Pacific.

That has given a group of scientists and technicians a few days before one blows ashore to examine satellite readings, run computer models and plan crews and equipment, all of which culminates in a uniquely full-contact effort to understand these storms’ inner workings: By dropping sensors into them from the sky.

This week, aboard a Gulfstream IV jet that was streaking toward Alaska as a giant storm seethed miles below, an engineer gave a quick countdown: “Sonde’s out in 5, 4, 3, 2 …”

A hatch in the plane’s belly sprang open. The sonde, a tube of instruments about the size of a model rocket, was sucked out into the frigid air and began plummeting [....]

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Getting Inside California’s