ATLANTA — Imagine a long river of water vapor in the sky coming into the West Coast.

It is how Marty Ralph, the director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, described the storm event threatening California at the moment.

Throughout the weekend and into next week, parts of the West Coast will go from extreme drought to facing a series of bomb cyclones and an associated atmospheric river.

"Wherever the storms hit shore on the West Coast is where the heaviest precipitation occurs, and that can be very beneficial in areas that often don't have enough water — and we have the drought going right now," Ralph told CNN.

Ultimately, experts like Ralph say the atmospheric river is needed more than ever to replenish the unrelenting drought in the West.

But after a long dry period, Ralph said many farming communities would benefit from a high-precipitation event.

And since the storm is coming earlier in the season than usual, Kalansky said preparedness is crucial for an event like this.

"It is a very extreme event for this early in the season, and people might not be prepared for something like this because it doesn't typically happen," she said

"The research has shown that atmospheric rivers are projected to become more extreme in the future," Kalansky said