Bomb cyclone spawned by atmospheric river heading for West Coast

This year’s bomb cyclone season has rolled astir erstwhile again, and a almighty 1 exacerbated by a monolithic atmospheric stream could beryllium bearing down connected the Pacific Northwest and Northern California, upwind experts warned Tuesday.

“Powerful Pacific tempest to interaction the West Coast with dense rain, life-threatening flooding, upwind and higher elevation upland snowfall opening tonight,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center warned Tuesday afternoon.

The tempest was expected to disrupt question successful the region, AccuWeather reported.

An atmospheric stream is simply a agelong plume of moisture trailing acold retired into the Pacific Ocean, and the 1 drifting toward the West Coast is the season’s strongest truthful far.

The accompanying tempest volition intensify rapidly capable to beryllium labeled a weaponry cyclone, National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center meteorologist Richard Bann said.

A bomb cyclone happens erstwhile atmospheric unit plummets by astatine slightest 24 millibars wrong 24 hours amid a storm, resulting successful a improvement known arsenic bombogenesis. The cardinal unit of the tempest bearing down connected bluish California and confederate Oregon is slated to scope “double the criteria for a weaponry cyclone,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said.

Flood and high-wind watches were going into effect Tuesday successful bluish California, which was bracing for up to 8 inches of rainfall predicted for parts of the San Francisco Bay Area, North Coast and Sacramento Valley.

Last twelvemonth brought similar conditions arsenic California was beset by a series of drenching atmospheric rivers and storms, 1 of which killed 2 people.

With News Wire Services