Bomb cyclone live tracker reveals location of deadly storm as it moves towards the west coast
A “once in a decade” bomb cyclone has unleashed itself on several West Coast states, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans without power and one death.
This powerful storm rapidly intensified Tuesday as it moved toward Washington, Oregon and Northern California, simultaneously fueling a Category 5 atmospheric river and directing it toward land.
A live tracker revealed that the bomb cyclone’s deadly location at 9 a.m. ET was just 300 miles off the coast of Washington and was slowly moving closer to the coastline.
While meteorologists expect the eye of the storm to remain over the ocean, major hurricane force conditions, including wind gusts between 75 and 75 miles per hour, will continue to batter the states this week.
The National Weather Service (NWS) Portland office said: “Extremely high winds and very steep and mountainous seas are likely to capsize or damage ships. Near zero visibility is expected. Bars will become impassable.
“Mariners should remain in port, alter course and/or secure the ship against extreme winds and very steep seas.”
As of 8:50 a.m. ET, about 560,000 customers were without power in Washington, along with 16,500 in California, 15,000 in Nevada and 3,000 in Oregon.
Meteorologists are calling this the first major storm of the winter season, and its impact will be felt all weekend, even if the bomb cyclone and atmospheric river along the coast remain stagnant as the week progresses.
A ‘once in a decade’ bomb cyclone has unleashed itself on Western states, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans without power and one dead
As of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, peak wind speeds were in Canadian waters, where gusts of 100 mph were reported off the coast of Vancouver Island, according to the NWS in Seattle.
The atmospheric river made landfall in Northern California Tuesday night and is expected to drop 4 to 8 inches of rain in California’s northern Coast Ranges and very heavy snow in the Klamath Mountains.
The atmospheric river’s peak impacts will pummel Northern California through Friday, causing potentially deadly flash floods, mudslides and rockslides.
But the system is expected to weaken Friday as it moves over the Cascades and through northern California and southwestern Oregon.
‘It’s bad there. Trees are down across the city, and several are falling on homes,” the fire department in Bellevue, east of Seattle, posted in a severe weather warning on Facebook.
‘If you are able, go to the lowest floor possible and stay away from windows. Don’t go outside if you can avoid it.’
This record-breaking storm has already claimed one life. A Lynnwood, Washington woman in her 50s died Tuesday evening when a large tree fell on a homeless encampment, according to the South County Fire Department.
Meanwhile, in Seattle, a tree struck a vehicle, temporarily trapping the driver, the Seattle Fire Department said. The individual is said to be in stable condition.
An Amtrak train also collided with a fallen tree near an intersection in Stanwood, north of Seattle, on Tuesday evening. CNN affiliate KIRO.
None of the 47 passengers on board were injured, but the crash rendered the train unusable.
The bomb cyclone feeds and directs an atmospheric river onto land, causing significant precipitation to fall over the western states, especially Northern California
Storm surge crashes onto southwestern Oregon’s rocky coastline as a bomb cyclone barrels toward the West Coast on November 19
The storm is considered a “bomb cyclone” because it lost more than 24 millibars of central pressure in a 24-hour period. This level of amplification is known as ‘bombogenesis’.
Storm intensity is measured by central pressure: the lower the pressure, the stronger the impact.
On Tuesday evening, a buoy off the coast of Washington, near the center of the storm, recorded an air pressure of 950 millibars with wind gusts of 120 km per hour. WashingtonPost meteorologist Ben Noll reported.
A sea level pressure of less than 980 millibars represents a pretty strong low, according to the press Penn State College of Earth and Mineral Sciences.
The bomb cyclone combines forces with an atmospheric river – a long and narrow part of the atmosphere that transports heat and moisture from the tropics to the Earth’s poles.
Seattle Fire Department personnel direct traffic from NE 80th St. after power lines fell across the street during the severe storm
A person records the damage to a tree and downed power lines
In this image from Eastside Fire & Rescue, officials investigate the scene where a tree fell on a home in Issaquah, Washington, Tuesday, November 19, 2024
The cyclone will fuel a Category 5 atmospheric river and head toward Northern California. This river belongs to category A. Category 5 is exceptionally dangerous and causes intense storm effects on land.
This will significantly increase the amount of precipitation falling across the region, especially in California.
AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said, “Drenching rain from the storm will reach the San Francisco Bay Area, but not until later in the week.”
“The heaviest rain will fall near and north of the North Bay and along the Northern California coast, while San Francisco and the South Bay will be in the zone where rainfall will decrease rapidly from north to south.”
A total of up to 50 centimeters of precipitation could fall in this area, meteorologists predict.
The Category 5 atmospheric river will significantly increase the amount of precipitation falling across the region, especially in California
This can lead to flash floods, mudslides and rockslides, especially in areas affected by burns. or charred, barren patches of land left behind by forest fires.
That’s because burned soil can be as water-repellent as pavement, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and wildfires destroy the vegetation that stabilizes soil.
The National Weather Service also issued a flood warning for parts of southwestern Oregon through Friday evening, while rough winds and seas shut down a ferry route in northwest Washington between Port Townsend and Coupeville.
According to the weather service in Seattle, a blizzard warning was issued for most of Washington’s Cascades, including Mount Rainier National Park, as of Tuesday afternoon, with up to a foot of snow and wind gusts up to 60 miles per hour.
While California, Oregon and Washington will continue to bear the brunt of the impacts, storm conditions are already stretching beyond their borders, with heavy snowfall extending into Idaho, Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan.