What's a Winter "Bomb Cyclone?"

[Nancy OShea]

A bomb cyclone, also known as bombogenesis, is defined as a rapidly intensifying storm that happens when atmospheric pressure drops significantly caused by overlapping warm and cold air masses.  Temperatures can suddenly drop tens of degrees in minutes creating ice hazards on roads, bridges, aircraft & waterways. 

Much of the U.S. (west to east and below the Gulf Coast) will be impacted by extreme winter weather this holiday weekend.  The intensified storms and snap sub-zero temperatures are creating chaos for holiday travelers. 

Footage of blizzard from a Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper cam.

This morning, Casper, Wyoming reached a record-breaking 42 below zero.   Sub-zero temperatures can cause frostbite in as little as 10 seconds.  Stay safe everyone! 

[Kevin-Monahan]

We in the SF Bay Area are prepping for the 3PM arrival of the Bomb Cyclone. Get ready for: BAYLANTIS.

[Nancy OShea]

I'm in SoCal (Ventura County). The atmospheric river is expected to hit land tonight.  Get a boat.

[Nancy OShea]

Rain, rain, rain...  and it smells like seaweed!

If it starts raining frogs & fish, I'm getting an Ark.

[ls_rbls]

Let's not forget about forcasted solar flares.

[gener7]

Santa Cruz mountains tends to get a lot of extreme weather out of these systems...leading into this meme:

[Nancy OShea]

Things could get worse in coming days as a hyperactive Pacific storm train heads our way.  NOA predicts a foot of rain and 9 feet of snow in Sierra/Nevada between now and mid-January.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/winter-weather/hyperactive-pacific-storm-train-to-keep-slamming-calif...

[Nancy OShea]

Oh $&%t!  Last night I forgot to disable outdoor water sprinklers. The lawn is a winter Slip'N Slide!

[gener7]

I guess we got a few more rounds coming. The Jan 7th storm headed up North with winds up to 70 mph and toppled a lot of trees all over Sacramento (state capital) damaging cars and regretably killing one homeless woman.

Simple, clear and wrong Twitter advice: "Stay away from trees during a storm." Answer: "How? Sacramento is a city full of trees."

[Nancy OShea]

I understand 300,000 Sacramento residents are still without power.

Here in southern CA, we're on Moderate Flood Warning anywhere near water from Mon am  - Tues pm.

https://www.localconditions.com/weather-california-valley-california/ca140/alerts.php

We've powered up our devices and have extra batteries for phones, flashlights & radios.

[gener7]

Montecito, a well to do celebrity community is under evac orders. Hopefully your place is safe for now. These storms visit northern California first, then head south. Usually they are less severe by the time they get there. Not this time I guess.

[Nancy OShea]

The 101 coast HWY was closed from Santa Barabara to Carpenteria as Montecito residents were trying to evacuate flood & debris flows.   What a mess!

The atmospheric river just sort of stalled over us but wasn't as intense as in Santa Barbara County.  Schools closed, lots of emergency sirens (hydroplaning vehicle accidents, downed trees, flooded intersections) The rain didn't fully stop here until noon today.

Thankfully, we have French drains on our property that did their job. Water never rose high enough to breach the house.  But there's a lot of standing water (mosquito magnet) and other cleanup to do before Fri pm when it rains again... 

[gener7]

French drains are an amazing concept, and definitely beats having to join the crowd on 101. Nothing like your own place if you have to shelter. It's hard work to keep up property, but more than pays for itself.

We went through a round of lightning and hail less than an hour ago, but I'll take that over the winters I knew as a youngster.