Parts of Lafayette are under a flash flood warning this morning due to heavy rain. Some parts of the city are impassable.

Spain closed schools and evacuated residents as heavy rains lashed the country Wednesday, two weeks after its worst floods in a generation killed more than 200 people. The rain also meant schools and universities closed across large parts of Valencia,

In the northern hemisphere, atmospheric rivers typically occur during winter and are often cited for strong storms in the West. According to NASA, they are the largest transport mechanisms of fresh water on Earth.

The storms pushing off the Pacific are the result of an atmospheric river, a corridor of air heavy with moisture that forms when warmer air from the tropics moves toward the poles. As the first of the two storms pushes inland on Monday,