A ‘bomb cyclone’ swept into Western Washington Tuesday night, leaving half a million people without power and killing two individuals. Puget Sound Energy reports over 400,000 of their customers suffered outages, many of which could potentially last for multiple days. 

For those who are just hearing about this weather phenomenon for the first time, a ‘bomb cyclone’ – also classified as “Bombogenesis” – is when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) explains this definition further, saying “Bombogenesis can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters.”

The system formed in the ocean and pulled winds from the Olympic Peninsula and Eastern Washington to rage through King County and surrounding areas. It is quickly followed by an ‘atmospheric river’ bearing down on California right now anticipated to bring inches of rain to Washington.

Word of a potential bomb cyclone hit the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday, and that Tuesday night, the cyclone struck, leaving over half a million people without power in the western Washington area. 

Advisories were immediately sent out, urging people to prepare for wind damage and heavy rain. Storm winds reached upwards to 101 mph, which is akin to a Category 2 hurricane. Trees came down from Lynnwood to Enumclaw, trapping people in their house. An Amtrak train collided with a fallen tree in Stanwood.

Highline College closed its campus Tuesday evening, canceling classes and all campus activities for Wednesday, and reopened to normal conditions for Thursday.

David Menke, the Director of Public Safety and Emergency Management spoke to the Thunderword about Highline College closing its campus Tuesday evening, explaining the reasoning behind the decision. “We suspended operations Tuesday and Wednesday due to the widespread power outages in the community, which created concern for transportation and [the] safety of our students, faculty and staff,” he said.

Menke did mention that Highline College, as well as the Federal Way and Redondo sites had minimal impacts, and currently have all systems operating correctly. He also noted that Highline has suspended operations before, just last fall because of a power outage on campus.

Highline students are encouraged to keep an eye out for text and call alerts, and reminded to keep their contact information and preferred language updated using the Highline College Alerts Page, while also using caution when traveling throughout the adjacent communities.

Puget Sound Energy (PSE) still has over 283,000 households without power, the Snohomish County Public Utilities Department (SCPUD) currently has 25,342 households in the dark, and Seattle City Lights (SCL) reports almost 10,000 without power.

PSE reports that many of their customers could be without electricity for several days as they work to restore power. PSE also says that the brunt of the damage is located in the King County area and they “encourage customers to make alternate plans as we work to assess the situation and restore power.”

PSE’s outage map shows when specific areas should be receiving power; SCPUD and SCL have also released similar maps to aid citizens as news continues to be released. 

As of now, Washington is expected to get hit with inches of rain in the coming days, following additional flooding in northern California as well as southern Oregon.

There have been many injuries and quite a few casualties of this bomb cyclone. There are still many tree branches or entire trees in the road, a large amount of downed power lines, and some of them may still be charged so PSE advises to “Never touch or go within 35 feet of downed power lines because they might be energized. Call PSE at 1-888-225-5773 or 911 to report problems.”

Stay safe Thunderbirds.