The new year brought California a series of atmospheric rivers that poured record amounts of water onto drought-stricken lands. While the precipitation refreshed snowpacks and reservoirs, much of it washed away as soils oversaturated. Those flows carried sediment with them, creating swirls of brown and green along the coastline.
Compare the two satellite images above to see how different January 2022 looked from January 2023, post-deluge. The snow levels in January 2023 were about 248 percent of their average level for that part of the season. But the sediment levels in the ocean are also drastically increased, indicating high levels of erosion. (Image credit: J. Stevens; via NASA Earth Observatory)
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