A powerful extratropical cyclone struck the Pacific Northwest, leading to widespread damage and leaving nearly 600,000 without power.
Featuring rapid intensification, the storm’s central pressure matched historical lows, causing severe wind gusts and initiating a prolonged atmospheric river expected to deluge Northern California and Southern Oregon with up to 16 inches of rain.
Storm Impact and Satellite Imagery
A powerful extratropical cyclone struck the Pacific Northwest on November 19, 2024, bringing intense winds and heavy rain to the region. The storm toppled trees and caused widespread power outages, leaving nearly 600,000 residents in Washington state without electricity by November 20, according to news reports.
Satellite imagery captured the storm system at 1:50 p.m. Pacific Time (21:50 UTC) on November 19. Extratropical cyclones are massive rotating weather systems that develop in midlatitude regions, typically more than 30° away from the equator. These systems often display distinctive comma-shaped cloud patterns created by “conveyor belt” circulation, with heavy precipitation concentrated near the low-pressure center of the “comma head.” The image was taken by the VIIRS (Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite) instrument aboard NOAA’s JPSS-1 (Joint Polar Satellite System-1) satellite.
Storm Intensification and Historical Context
On the evening of November 19, the storm’s central pressure dropped to levels on par with a storm in October 2021, which saw the lowest pressure in about 50 years of records for that region, according to Chris Dolce, a meteorologist at The Weather Channel. The pace of the storm’s intensification was more than double the criteria for bombogenesis—a popular term that describes a mid-latitude cyclone that rapidly intensifies into a “bomb cyclone.”
Wind Gusts and Atmospheric Conditions
The plunging atmospheric pressure in the center of the storm caused winds to increase quickly on November 19. The National Weather Service in Seattle reported wind gusts of up to 77 miles (124 kilometers) per hour in the mountains southeast of Seattle.
Forecast and Rainfall Predictions
The cyclone kicked off a long-duration atmospheric river that forecasters expect will park over Northern California and southern Oregon through November 22. The National Weather Service estimates that these areas could see rainfall totals of 12 to 16 inches (30 to 41 centimeters) over the duration of the storm.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Lauren Dauphin, using VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS).
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1 Comment
This is a 99% isolated to the coast event where about 700,000 people live in total. This is the area that experiences violent storms. I hope their power is restored quickly!
My family in Florida has learned to take these reports of severe weather in Oregon in stride, as it almost never impacts me in Portland. The ancient coastal mountain range mitigates the effects of such weather events in the interior valley which is protected to the East by the Cascades. 70% of Oregonians live in the Willamette Valley. So, for us, the “bomb cyclone” is some wind gusts. The damage is mostly confined to our sparsely populated coast, with the exception of the Tillamook area where the Coast Range has a gap. That gap helps provide the area with the lush grass that feeds our famously productive dairy cows. They have more interesting weather.
The Eastern majority of Oregon is much more arid than it is wet. The highest precipitation totals are high in the Cascades. They receive 550-700 inches of snow each winter.
The heavily populated valley is blessed with benign weather. In Portland lightning storms are front page news! In 22 years here I have never seen lightning, I have heard thunder a few times. We very rarely have storms of ANY kind, our rainfall is nowhere near as heavy as most of America’s. I grew up on the Gulf Coast and in Houston, I have experienced 48 inches of rain in 12 hours. If we have two inches of rain in a week, again it is a news story.
Our winters are cool and wet, our summers are dry and warm. We have occasional snow events, every ten years or so, we have an unusually cold spell or an unusually hot spell. There are good reasons why we are second only to California in producing nursery plants, we provide 75% of the WORLD”s grass seed; it is our very gentle climate. We do lose a few tall trees to the weather every year, but it is mostly because our native Douglas Fir Trees are supposed to have the forest to mitigate winds, they tend to blow over when they remain around homes after the forest was cut for development. They are relatively shallow rooted.
I asked our most respected local Meteorologist why they report our weather as being “wild” and he admitted that it is for entertainment…