An urgent weather warning has been issued for eight East Coast states with a bomb cyclone expected to unleash hurricane conditions in the region.
Meteorologists predict that states from Maine to New York will see the worst impacts, with dangerous flooding and widespread power outages predicted to start on Wednesday evening.
A bomb cyclone is a meteorological term for a storm between the tropics and polar region that rapidly strengthens over a 24-hour period, often leading to considerable damage.
This super-charged storm will bring wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour, as well as torrential rainfall of eight inches in places, which will be amplified by an atmospheric river stretching 2,000 miles along the coast.
An atmospheric river is a long and narrow region of the atmosphere that carries warmth and moisture from the tropics toward Earth’s poles.
The East Coast has been hit with unseasonably high temperatures this week, with New York City topping 61 degrees on Wednesday, 30 above the December average.
‘The impactful nature of the storm in coastal areas of the Northeast will be like a landfilling strong tropical storm or hurricane,’ AccuWeather meteorologists stated.
According to AccuWeather, the heavily populated metro areas of Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut, could see significant urban and small stream flooding.
‘The risk for significant flooding will be further amplified across the higher elevations of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine where there is a considerable snowpack of several inches on the ground,’ AccuWeather meteorologist Jonathan Porter warned.
He added that rapidly melting snow can add one to two inches of water to storm runoff, and rapidly rising water can cause ‘life-threatening’ flooding.
The National Weather Service (NWS) has also issued a high-wind warning for Long Island, New York and the coast of Connecticut from 12pm to 10pm ET Wednesday, with sustained winds of 25 to 35 mph and gusts up to 60 mph expected.
The agency has also issued this warning to parts of Maine from 7 pm ET Wednesday to 6 am ET Thursday, as well as all of eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island from 3o0 pm this afternoon to 1 am ET tomorrow.
‘Damaging winds will blow down trees and power lines. Widespread power outages are expected. Travel will be difficult, especially for high-profile vehicles,’ NWS officials stated.
‘Remain in the lower levels of your home during the windstorm, and avoid windows. Watch for falling debris and tree limbs. Use caution if you must drive.’
According to AccuWeather, the early stages of this storm already battered parts of the southeastern US with torrential downpours on Monday and Tuesday, even prompting tornado warnings.
The rain expanded northward into the central Appalachians, mid-Atlantic, and southern New England regions Tuesday night.
The storm, which is currently developing off the East Coast, is expected to reorganize along the upper mid-Atlantic coast Wednesday.
Its central pressure will plunge, potentially falling 24 millibars in a span of 24 hours or less – a form of rapid intensification known as ‘bombogenesis.’
This is what creates a ‘bomb cyclone.’
Simultaneously, a 2,000-mile-long band of water vapor stretching all the way from the northeastern US to the Caribbean Sea will intensify the storm’s rainfall.
