U.S. Weather
Bomb Cyclone Slams Northwest
A powerful storm clobbered Washington state on Wednesday, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of people while disrupting road travel and causing at least one death and two injuries. The storm with tropical-storm-force winds of 50 mph (80 kph) and gusts around 70 mph felled trees and power lines overnight. The storm, called a "bomb cyclone" when the storm rapidly intensifies, is going to stall over northern California in the next few days. On Friday, rainfall could reach up to 20 inches (508 mm) in parts of southwest Oregon and northern California. A bomb cyclone rapidly intensifies in 24 hours or less when a cold air mass from the polar region collides with warm tropical air in a process that meteorologists call bombogenesis.