Nearly 600,000 customers were without power in the Pacific Northwest on Wednesday as a bomb cyclone unleashed strong winds and heavy snow across multiple states.
The bomb cyclone brought dangerous weather conditions across the Northwest on Tuesday, and multiple winter weather-related warnings remained in place as of Wednesday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).
A bomb cyclone occurs when a storm's pressure drops quickly, which intensifies the storm and ramps up wind gusts. Northwest of Washington, winds gusted as high as 101 mph on Vancouver Island, AccuWeather reported, equivalent to a Category 2 hurricane. Winds measured 85 mph in parts of Oregon, equivalent to a Category 1 hurricane.
The most widespread power outages occurred in Washington, with more than half a million people without power on Wednesday as the wintry storm raged on. At least one person has died from the storm's impacts, according to a social media post from South County Fire in Washington. Winds caused a large tree to fall in a homeless encampment, killing a woman in her 50s, the department said.
Outages were more frequently reported in the central and northern parts of the state, according to a map by PowerOutage.us, where a blizzard warning, winter weather advisory and winter storm warning were in place.
"The strong winds and weight of snow on tree limbs may down power lines and could cause sporadic power outages," the NWS office in Spokane said.
Newsweek reached out to the NWS office in Spokane by phone for comment.
Most winter weather warnings were set to expire by Wednesday evening for the Washington forecast regions.
In California, more than 35,000 people were without power, according to the power outage map. Most power outages were in the northern part of the state. Western Nevada also had power outages related to the storm, with more than 12,500 people without power. Nearly 9,000 people were without power in Oregon, with most of those outages focused in the southwest.
Wintry conditions were expected to continue in those states until Wednesday night.
"Plan on slippery road conditions," the Reno, Nevada, NWS office warned. "The hazardous conditions could impact the Wednesday morning and evening commutes. Gusty winds could bring down tree branches."
The storm was moving eastward and was expected to bring winter weather impacts across Montana and other northern states later this week.
Meanwhile, another winter storm is over the Plains states and will bring the first significant snowfall across that region before moving into the Great Lakes region and Eastern U.S. later this week. Meteorologists are urging residents in those areas to exercise caution and keep an eye on the weather as the storm arrives, with the heaviest snowfall expected overnight on Thursday.
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