I am no meteorologist, but I am sure interested by a recent weather phenomenon that has afflicted California: A parked low pressure system since today, which has brought cooler weather to the Bay Area, and the Central Valley, and a bunch of storms in the Sierra Nevada and some showers in Los Angeles. Low pressure systems, also known as cyclones , are associated cold or warm fronts, and thus, drive the development of clouds, storms, and precipitation.
These cyclones have a reasonably large area of effect, spanning several hundred (or a few thousand) kilometers in diameter. I didn’t quite know that cyclones actually moved from place to place, guided by atmospheric winds (jet streams), bringing storms wherever they go. So, what’s significant about this? Cyclones typically sweep through an area in a matter of just a day or two, but this one wants to stay, not moving until the Weekend, in which case it’ll drift to Arizona and New Mexico. But that’s not before it is replaced by an even stronger low pressure system moving in… I’ll welcome the rain and cooler weather, if that is what it will bring.
Source: SF Chronicle
