Meteorologists and local news channels have been pretty creative in labeling the recent storm systems in California. We’ve seen ‘bomb cyclone’, and even ‘pineapple express’, but it looks like the media has settled on “Atmospheric River” as the dominant label for these storms.  Partly because of a certain parody twitter

Back-to-back storms have characterized this winter in ways unseen since the nineties. Flash flooding in low-lying areas on surface streets, freeways, busy city intersections and residential zones. Landslides on forested and urbanized slopes closing coastal highways and threatening homes. Washouts that swallow portions of piers and historic promenades have been