Winter Storm Expected To Turn Into Bomb Cyclone

A winter storm is expected to turn into a bomb cyclone Saturday, delivering snow, winds and dangerous travel conditions to parts of the East Coast, CNN reported Friday.

“Snow rates of greater than 1 inch per hour combined with gusty winds will produce blowing and drifting snow. This will severely reduce visibility and make for difficult to hazardous driving conditions,” the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center said Friday.

Around four to six inches of snow is expected in the Tennessee and Ohio River Valleys in addition to over a foot of snow in the interior Northeast, including upstate New York and northern New England, CNN reported. A cold front is also reportedly pushing its way east, delivering temperatures almost 30 degrees below average from Texas to Minnesota and single-digit wind chills in the Great Lakes and Northeast regions.

A bomb cyclone forms when a storm decreases in pressure by 24 millibars in less than 24 hours, according to CNN. Over 65 million people reportedly remained under a winter weather alert from the National Weather Service on Friday morning.

Meanwhile, thunderstorms are expected from the central Gulf Coast into Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and North and South Carolina on Friday and Saturday, CNN reported.