California, the weather pendulum of the U.S., has been known for its dangerously hot and dry weather, often resulting in large scale forest fires, however on Tuesday, January 10,  residents were hit with torrential down-poor, flash flooding, and mudslides.

The cause of such a weather phenomenon is an atmospheric river that lies directly over  Santa Barbara County, Ventura County, Los Angeles County and San Luis Obispo County.

Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow regions in the atmosphere carrying an amount of water vapor almost equivalent to that of the flow of water in the Mississippi River, and when they make landfall it is often in the form of rain or snow. It is essentially a river in the sky.

The scale of measuring atmospheric rivers is similar to that of hurricanes, on a scale of 1 to 5. The one waterlogging California for the past few weekswas rated a 5, as the most severe. 

In the past 2 weeks parts of the state have received up to 25-35 inches of rain. 

The state and the people were battered by the series of storms, many losing a lot more than just their homes.

“As of Tuesday afternoon, at least 17 people have been confirmed dead across California as a result of the winter storms that have battered the state,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a news conference, according to CNN.

Many had power outages and excessive water damage and are still looking to restore their homes.

Approximately 180,000 customers are currently without power across the state Tuesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.US.

As of Tuesday 20 million were under flood alerts and 34,000 were under evacuation orders.

“Helicopters have been used in at least six hoist rescues, and 265 firefighters have been out responding to more than 400 storm-related calls scattered throughout the county’s approximately 3,000 square miles,” Santa Barbara County Fire Chief Anthony Stornetta said according to CNN.

As of late the atmospheric rivers seem to be moving out and the worst appears to be over.

Residents and officials are now working to restore the beaten down state.

Such an extreme difference from their dry climate begs the question, why? 

Californians are going through what is known as a weather whiplash, in which the weather and climate of a region shifts drastically between 2 extreme and opposing conditions.

However it is not just California, this has been occurring all over the world. 

Last summer, Dallas was hit with temperatures of 100 degrees and experienced no rainfall for about 2 months, then suddenly a rainstorm hit the city pouring down more than a foot of water in parts of the city in only half a day.

In late December of 2022, regions in Buffalo, New York, temperatures drastically dropped into the negatives, with over 50 feet of snowfall, killing more that 24 people and within a matter of days temperatures reverted back into the mid 30s and 40s.

Some scientists believe the drastic change in weather could be due to global warming. While some do not believe it is causation for an increase in weather whiplash as of late, the fear is that it may increase the frequency of such events in the future.