Atmospheric rivers, extreme rainfall, severe floods, weather warnings … If you live in British Columbia, there’s a good chance you heard some combination of these words on Oct. 20. There’s also a fair chance you saw images of flooded streets, inundated houses, semi-submerged cars, and more. Surely witnessing this has left a strong impression on many of us. Was October’s atmospheric river a case of media sensationalism influencing public perception? Or was it a sign of catastrophic climate change drawing us closer to doomsday?
As humans, we are very good at believing the world is ending. As David Mitchell once stated, “Anticipating the end of the world is humanity’s oldest pastime.” So, surely, there has to be more than meets the eye when it comes to this increase in atmospheric rivers and floods. Rest assured, the world is not ending.
Essentially, atmospheric rivers are weather systems that contain high water vapour concentrations that travel from the tropics to the poles, eventually reaching North America’s west coast. These weather systems are responsible for single-handedly creating about 50 per cent of the U.S. west coast’s water supply, so you can imagine the impressive amount of water atmospheric rivers can carry.
If they are known to cause heavy rainfall, then October 2024’s atmospheric river shouldn’t be much of a surprise … Except it was. The Weather Network declared Oct. 19 the second wettest October day on record with 67 millimetres of rain, only after Oct. 16, 2003, which had 85 millimetres recorded. Although extreme rainfall events such as the one we witnessed this past October are not common, they do happen: most notably, the Sumas flood in November 2021 broke rainfall records and severely swamped rivers and farmland across B.C., causing an estimated $285 Million worth in damage in Abbotsford alone. So, while these dramatic weather events are not new, they are far enough apart to leave a longer lasting impression than their tamer counterparts — for obvious reasons.
What makes atmospheric rivers feel like a growing threat is the idea that they have mutated monstrously thanks to climate change. There is evidence that suggests climate change is causing more rainfall to hit British Columbia and its surrounding areas, but to a certain degree this stems from the cooling of the Pacific Ocean associated with La Niña conditions. Coupled with that, there is more data suggesting that the behaviour of atmospheric rivers are indeed changing: they are happening more often and more severely. This is where some people draw the line; they hear climate change mentioned, see the effects of a severe weather event and, understandably, react with fear and panic. This then leads to them publicizing their reactions on social media, where news of the floods are often shared.
It is at moments like these where the perfect conditions for fearmongering are created. Online media has a tendency to lean toward the exaggerated and extreme, since it easily captivates people’s attention and evokes strong reactions. I believe the recent atmospheric river event created such conditions for these reactions to take place, making the news go viral.
I remember sitting at home on that rainy October day, when I received a couple texts from my father. One of them was a link to a video showing the floods in Burnaby and the other one was him worrying and asking me if I was okay (which was very unlike him). I remember how upsetting it was to think that he thought I was in danger, and that I had to assure him I was out of danger’s way.
To sum it all up: yes, atmospheric rivers are getting stronger and will probably fluctuate more in the future due to the conditions mentioned earlier. But even with this shift, there is no cause for concern; there are systems in place to handle floods. British Columbia is and always has been a tropical rainforest, so a lot of rain was expected from the start. Extreme events like this year’s atmospheric river, as well as the one in November 2021, are impressive, if not frightening. But one thing is for sure: it’s no sign that the world is ending.
