(Reuters) -Atmospheric rivers are storms akin to rivers in the sky that dump massive amounts of rain and can cause flooding, ...

Atmospheric rivers are more common during the winter months, but officials are warning people not to let their guard down.

Atmospheric instability has two components: rising air and wind shear, which is created as wind speed changes with height.

The early atmosphere was mainly carbon dioxide and water vapour. Water vapour condensed to form the oceans. Photosynthesis caused the amount of carbon dioxide to decrease and oxygen to increase.

Here's an explanation of how they form, their size and potential ... Columns in the atmosphere hundreds of miles (km) long carry water vapor over oceans from the tropics to more temperate regions ...

Here's an explanation of how they form, their size and potential impacts. WHAT IS AN ATMOSPHERIC RIVER? The weather system occurs all over the world. It starts when a large amount of water vapor ...