Windy night coming to Western Washington as fringe of bomb cyclone moves in from CA

Western Washington will get a small taste of the bomb cyclone that could bring historic levels of rain, floods and snow to California on Wednesday and Thursday.

“The trajectory is definitely not for us,” said Maddie Kristell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle. “It’s a big enough system where we’re going to feel some of it as it makes its way in.”

The Golden State was bracing for the full effect of the atmospheric river as it moved in from the Pacific Ocean Wednesday afternoon. Civil authorities there are warning of flooding and landslides where soil is already saturated from a storm last weekend. California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Wednesday.

In Washington, the outer bands of the counter-clockwise-spinning cyclone will swing in from the east bringing sustained winds of 30-40 miles per hour and gusts up to 55 miles per hour, Kristell said.

A bomb cyclone, which often looks like a cresting wave from space, is not a hurricane. The NWS defines the phenomenon by a pressure drop in the storm’s center by 24 millibars in 24 hours.

“It’s kind of a rapid intensification,” Kristell said.

A wind advisory will be in effect in western Washington from 4 p.m. Wednesday to 4 a.m. Thursday. Parts of Puget Sound, particularly to the south, could see up to a quarter inch of rain through Thursday.

More atmospheric river storms are in the forecast over the next 10 days.