A record-strong low-pressure system will steer an atmospheric river into California, create blizzard conditions in Washington and bring strong, damaging winds. Up to 20 inches of rain expected in California.

A powerful bomb cyclone is ripping the Pacific Northwest with hurricane-strength winds as the season’s first atmospheric river comes ashore in Northern California, promising torrential rains, floods and mudslides across the region.

A powerful winter storm, brewing this week over Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, is what meteorologists call a bomb cyclon

Bomb cyclone is a term used by weather enthusiasts to describe a process that meteorologists usually call bombogenesis. It’s the rapid intensification of a cyclone in a short period of time, and it can happen during powerful storms such as the one northern California and the Pacific Northwest are preparing for this week.

A third winter storm is on its way to California, with forecasts anticipating that it will hit the Golden State on Friday, only days after a bomb cyclone unleashed hurricane-force winds across the Pacific Northwest and an atmospheric river brought a deluge of rain and snow.

Washington state is reeling following a powerful “bomb cyclone” that left two dead, knocked out power to half a million at its peak and downed trees and power lines.

A historically strong storm system with the strength of a hurricane whipped damaging winds through the Pacific Northwest overnight leading to power outages across the region. It was creating large ocean waves and ushering in a drenching atmospheric river that is expected to continue soaking Northern California.

A bomb cyclone that hit the US Pacific north-west and killed multiple people is expected to combine with an atmospheric river, bringing life-threatening rainfall and flooding to the western region. The winter storm has already brought damaging winds and dangerous levels of rain and snow to the US west coast.