(OPINION) What happens when an atmospheric river and a “bomb cyclone” happen at the same time? Unfortunately, millions of people living on the West Coast are about to find out.
Extremely high winds, massive amounts of rain, and blizzard conditions in the mountains are being forecast for the days ahead, but nobody is quite sure exactly how this extremely unusual weather event is going to play out.
Over the past few years, weather patterns all over the planet have been going completely insane, and now it is happening again. It is very rare for an atmospheric river and a “bomb cyclone” to occur simultaneously, but that is precisely what we are witnessing…
The arrival of an atmospheric river – a long, narrow band of heavy moisture from the tropics – coincides with conditions in the Pacific where a polar air mass collides with a tropical air mass, causing the atmospheric pressure to drop quickly.
Meteorologists call such low-pressure systems a bomb cyclogenesis, bombogenesis, or a bomb cyclone, which intensifies the storm and increases its winds.
It would be bad enough to be facing an atmospheric river and a “bomb cyclone” at the same time, but it turns out that both of them are also immensely powerful.
According to meteorologist Ryan Maue, this is a “Category 5 atmospheric river”, and the central pressure of the “bomb cyclone” will drop so low that it will be “similar” to a Category 4 hurricane…
A massive “bomb cyclone” is set to explode off the U.S. West Coast with hurricane force winds, flooding rains, and enormous mountain snow from Category 5 atmospheric river.
Central pressure will fall almost 70 mb / 24 hours reaching 942 mb — similar to Category 4 hurricane. I had a very difficult time processing that when I first read it.
We have never seen anything like this before. Ryan Maue is a very highly respected meteorologist, and I have no reason to doubt what he is saying. He is also telling us that approximately 20 trillion gallons of moisture will be dumped on the U.S. over the next week…
Just in the next 7-days from the “climate fueled” atmospheric river and mega “bomb cyclone” 8 Trillion gallons of precipitation will fall on California 5T on Oregon and 3T on Washington + 2.5T on Idaho
Pushing 20 Trillion gallons from this extreme event. This has the potential to be a historic disaster.
According to Accuweather, it is being projected that the central pressure of the “bomb cyclone” will “crash from 29.53 inches (1000 mb) to at least 28.05 inches (950 mb) in 24 hours”…
The storm will strengthen so fast that it will fit into a special category of weather terminology known as a bomb cyclone. A storm, or cyclone, is essentially a giant spinning vacuum in the atmosphere.
When a storm’s central pressure drops 0.71 of an inch of mercury inches (24 millibars) or more in 24 hours or less, it is considered to be a bomb cyclone.
“This storm’s central pressure is forecast to crash from 29.53 inches (1000 mb) to at least 28.05 inches (950 mb) in 24 hours, which is double the criteria for a bomb cyclone,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said.
We have seen “bomb cyclones” before. But I have never heard of a storm’s central pressure falling so fast that it actually doubles the criteria for a bomb cyclone. That is nuts. We are being told that the hardest hit areas along the West Coast will be “between the San Francisco Bay area and Eureka, California”…
The heaviest impacts, classified by the University of California, San Diego as “extreme,” will be between the San Francisco Bay area and Eureka, California, according to WeatherNation.
Strong impacts from the storm are expected as far north as central Oregon and as far south as Salinas, California. These include high winds, heavy rain, and the potential for flash flooding. (READ MORE)
