The current impacts from the major California winter storm, and the future impacts it will have

While Central Missouri has been experiencing its own whiplash with winter weather, California and much of the Western United States have been getting their own significant changes. For some areas, over the past 7 days, over 92 inches of snow have fallen in areas like the Central Sierra Snow Lab. Near Lake Tahoe, the significant snow totals triggered an avalanche that, unfortunately, resulted in the loss of life of 6 individuals, making it the deadliest US avalanche in 45 years.

This was all caused by what is known as an atmospheric river, and this formation is what is going to lead to more potential snowfall for the West Coast over the next 7 days. An atmospheric river is when there is wind flowing over the ocean that is pushing moisture towards land. Stronger winds can create a narrow band of extremely high moisture content, and this is where the "river" part of this system becomes present. The overall strength of these rivers depends on the wind speed and location. As it approaches the coast, the rainfall intensifies into narrow bands, leading to high amounts of rainfall that can lead to flooding in coastal areas. In the case of California, as this river is lifted due to the mountains, the mountains can aid in producing even heavier rain, and in this case, intense snowfall rates.

This caused an unfortunate combination when it came to the snow near Lake Tahoe that resulted in an avalanche. Before this event, there had not been very many snow events for the winter thus far, and because of that, the snow that was in place had become more of a weak, icy crust that would easily break if anything were to disturb it. The disturbance in this case was the wet, heavy snow that continued to pile up on top of this older layer of snow. The weight of these significant totals led to the eventual break of the crust underneath, leading to the avalanche that occurred.

Over the next 7 days, it doesn't look like California or the northwestern United States will be getting much of a break, as another atmospheric river-type feature is set to move onto the West Coast. This will bring more snow on top of the still significant leftover totals, especially to the most northwestern region of the United States. This isn't the only area observing activity, as much of the eastern and northeastern United States is set to be impacted by the same system that brought all this snow that has caused the widespread impacts in the west. The magnitude of these impacts is all dependent on how warm these areas can get before the system reaches them, making the difference between impactful snow totals and heavy, persistent rainfall. As for Missouri, this system will be passing to the north of the state, meaning little to no impacts are expected when it comes to winter weather over the next 7 days.