A rare ‘bomb cyclone’ has formed in the Pacific Ocean and threatens to hit the US West Coast with the strength of a hurricane.
The strong storm system packed with powerful winds and heavy rain will combine with an atmospheric river as it heads toward the Bay Area of Northern California on Tuesday night.
An atmospheric river, which is a band of moisture from the Pacific, is expected to dump a month’s worth of precipitation in just three to four days. The hardest hit areas are expected to be north of San Francisco.
The phenomenon also known as ‘bombogenesis’, could intensify so rapidly in the Pacific Northwest that it has the potential of becoming a ‘triple-bomb’ that is three times the strength of a regular bomb cyclone, according to the National Weather Service in San Francisco.
This bomb cyclone is forecast to be among the biggest to ever hit the region and happens ‘about once every ten years’, said the National Weather Service in Medford, Oregon, according to CNN. It can unleash ‘very dangerous mountainous seas of 30 to 35 feet’ and ‘the strongest winds’ in years.
Excessive rainfall risk warnings have been issued for the area from Tuesday to Friday.
Bomb cyclones are identified by an atmospheric pressure drop of 24 millibars or more in 24 hours or less, according to weather service forecaster Stephen Baron.
‘I would say rapid intensification of hurricanes is one of the more common times we see it,’ said Baron.
Bomb cyclones have previously formed in the West Coast and North Atlantic, with Nor’easters occasionally slamming the US Northeast. They can also occur in other oceans around the world.
Hurricane Milton, which made landfall as a Category 3 storm in Florida in October, was a bomb cycle, Baron said.
While the West Coast races itself for an unusual weather event, the East Coast and Gulf Coast have recently seen some storm systems form and dissipate at the tail end of a particularly active and destructive Atlantic hurricane season.
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