Bomb Cyclone Packing Heavy Rain and Hurricane-Force Winds Kills Two in California

Posted: January 6, 2023 12:16 pm

The bomb cyclone that pushed through the West Coast on Wednesday and Thursday has claimed the lives of at least two people, according to authorities in California. This mid-week storm was the second powerful weather event to slam into the Golden State in less than a week.

Atmospheric River Delivers Immense Moisture to California

The monster storm is being fueled by an atmospheric river that set up over the Pacific Ocean earlier in the week. As the intense plume of moisture moved on shore, it brought heavy rain and strong winds to a large part of the state. This type of storm often originates from the area of the Pacific near Hawaii, giving it the name of a “pineapple express.”

A 19-year-old female lost her life on Wednesday morning in Fairfield when her vehicle hydroplaned on a flooded roadway and hit a utility pole. Located in Solano County, Fairfield is approximately 40 miles northeast of San Francisco. The second death also happened on Wednesday in Occidental in Sonoma County when a tree fell on a home, killing a two-year-old boy who was inside.

The Bay Area was hit particularly hard by the torrential rain and damaging winds. Several homes along the coast in Santa Cruz County were evacuated as dangerous waves whipped up and moved past the shoreline. Piers in Seacliff, Aptos, and Capitola were severely damaged as a result of the rough surf conditions.

Pacific Storm Undergoes Process of Bombogenesis

As forecasters had been predicting, the storm out in the Pacific Ocean went under the process known as bombogenesis, creating the official bomb cyclone. According to the Ocean Prediction Center, the pressure of the incoming storm dropped by 0.86 of an inch in mercury between the hours of 4 am PST Tuesday and 4 am PST Wednesday. This drop met the criteria of defining the storm as a bomb cyclone.

The storm went through the process of bombogenesis, sending the winds to hurricane strength gusts in some areas of the state. A gust of 132 mph was recorded in Alpine Meadows in Placer County, located northeast of the capital city of Sacramento. The towns of Kirkwood and Palisades Tahoe both hit a gust of 119 mph.

As was expected, the winds of this magnitude brought down power lines, trees, and sections of roofs. By Thursday morning, there were 26,000 customers without power in San Mateo County alone with over 138,000 outages throughout the whole state. The coastal areas of Northern California bore the brunt of the power outages.

It has been a miserable week for most of the state with rainfall hitting over 4 inches in many locations in Northern California. For instance, Shasta recorded 4.03 inches of rainfall by the middle of the week.

According to the National Weather Service (NWS), downtown San Francisco saw its wettest 10-day stretch dating back to 1871. This part of the city measured 10.33 inches in the days ranging from December 26 through January 4.

While the region will experience a slight drying out on Friday and Saturday, the train of storms is forecast to fire up again late in the weekend. This next storm is predicted to bring the same significant impacts to California with a greater focus on the central part of the state. Stay tuned to the forecast to see how this latest storm develops in the coming days.

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