When will the ‘bomb cyclone’ hit Washington? Here’s the expected timeline of the storm
A storm that’s been building off the West Coast in recent days is expected to hit Washington in the afternoon on Tuesday, Nov. 19. The storm, which some say meets the criteria to be considered a ‘bomb cyclone,’ is expected to bring gusts of wind up to 65 mph in some parts of the state, while most of Washington will see winds in the 30 to 45 mph range.
With the storm approaching quickly, here’s when experts say the winds will pick up, peak and subside.
Timeline of the ‘bomb cyclone’ in WA
According to Anna Lindeman, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle, storm winds will approach the Washington coast Tuesday afternoon.
“We will continue to see those strong winds move inland, it looks like mid-afternoon they’ll start to move inland along the coast,” Lindeman said in a phone call with McClatchy.
Around the same time, NWS expects gap winds to emerge in the Cascade mountains. The gusts, combined with a decent amount of snow, could severely limit drivers’ visibility in the mountains.
“It’s not going to be super heavy snowfall over the Cascades, but we’re very confident over high wind speeds,” Lindeman said. “So the winds combined with the snowfall through the Cascade passes is going to create some really difficult travel conditions.”
In western Washington, the gusts from this storm will peak between Tuesday evening and Tuesday night.
“The strongest winds are going to occur around the 5:00 p.m. to midnight time frame,” Lindeman said.
Will there be power outages in WA?
The winds will be strong enough to knock over trees and damage power lines, although Lindeman said that the exact chances of power outages are harder to anticipate.
“It’s a little tricky to forecast that,” Lindeman said. “I think this strong of a storm system is definitely going to bring down some trees and blow around loose objects outside. So there’s definitely potential for some widespread power outages with this storm system.”
The winds will likely be accompanied by rain, although it won’t be particularly heavy.
“We’re also getting some pretty good precipitation,” Lindeman said. “We’re not expecting anything you would see in an atmospheric river, a lot of the moisture with this system is centered southwards, more over Oregon and California. But we’re still going to see some precipitation.”
Heavy PNW winds to continue Wednesday
Overnight, the NWS expects the storm to die down slightly. But Wednesday, Nov. 20 will still see more wind than usual.
“As we head into early tomorrow morning, the winds will gradually lighten,” Lindeman said. “So conditions will still be breezy throughout the day tomorrow, but not quite as strong. They’ll decrease to gusts of maybe 25 to 30 miles per hour throughout the day.”
This story was originally published November 19, 2024 at 11:57 AM.