Atmospheric rivers aren't just a problem for California. They're changing the Arctic, too - CNN

Using satellite observations and climate models, the scientists found that atmospheric rivers are reaching the Arctic more frequently during the winter season, especially over the Barents-Kara Seas, off the north coasts of Norway and Russia.

“Arctic sea ice decline is among the most obvious evidence of global warming from the past several decades,” Pengfei Zhang, the study’s lead author and assistant research professor of atmospheric science at Penn State University, said in a statement.

Atmospheric rivers are inherently warmer than the surrounding Arctic environment and can act like a blanket, trapping heat near the Earth’s surface and preventing it from escaping out to space.

Last year, in its annual Arctic health checkup, scientists with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration found it has become hotter, rainier and wetter, with a rapid decline in snow cover and unprecedented late season melting.

Marty Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, who was not involved in the research, said the study underscores the larger impact of atmospheric rivers.

“It is clear that the future of Arctic sea ice hinges to a significant degree on the strength and frequency of occurrence of [atmospheric rivers],” Ralph told CNN.