Yesterday's Rain was Da Bomb

The lagoon is filled with yesterday's rainwater from the mountains

Facing dire drought conditions, Northern California received heavy rain yesterday: [bold added]

The train of storms was largely triggered by a “bomb cyclone,” an area of rapidly decreasing low pressure, that pushed the systems ashore, including a Category 5 atmospheric river over the weekend.

An atmospheric river is a giant plume of moisture that generally wrings out when it makes landfall. Similar to hurricanes, the intensity of the systems is measured on a 1 to 5 scale...

Downtown San Francisco received 4.02 inches of rain on Sunday, the highest daily total ever for October, according to the National Weather Service. Sacramento reported 5.44 inches, the most ever recorded in a 24-hour period there.

Also over the weekend, the city of Napa recorded a 24-hour rainfall total of 5.35 inches and Santa Rosa recorded a 7.83-inch 24-hour period. Both totals were more than half the amount of rain that fell during the past water year, from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021, according to the weather service.

We've weathered heavy rains and drought before, but the language has become more colorful, even overheated. "Bomb cyclone" and "Category 5 atmospheric river" indeed. I wonder what they'll say if, God forbid, we should ever get hit by a hurricane.

Below is the same lagoon a mere three months ago.