'Bomb Cyclone' Storm To Bring Windy, Warm, Washout Across MA

MASSACHUSETTS — A strong storm with a budding bomb cyclone development will cause a very wet, windy and warm Wednesday with possible flooding and property damage as gusts reach up to 60 miles per hour with three inches of rain possible.

The bomb cyclone will unleash torrential rain and powerful winds from the Appalachians to the Atlantic coast that can snarl travel, trigger flooding and cause power outages at midweek, AccuWeather meteorologists warn.

• Power Outages, 55+ Winds, Flooding Possible In MA Coastal Storm

A High Wind Watch was issued across coastal sections of the Bay State, Cape Cod and the Islands, and interior southeastern Massachusetts with the threat of property damage and power outages. Coastal flooding is also possible across areas prone to inundation.

Those with travel plans on the ground or in the air can expect significant delays from Wednesday to early Thursday as a storm rockets northward from the Gulf of Mexico

According to AccuWeather, the central pressure of the storm will plunge, creating a giant vacuum
in the atmosphere that will cause winds to rush in. When the central pressure crashes 0.71 of an inch (24 millibars) in 24 hours or less, like this storm is projected to do, bombogenesis will occur and a bomb cyclone will be born.

Tornado warnings have been issued for some of the expected thunderstorms. The storm will quickly reorganize along the upper mid-Atlantic coast Wednesday. This new storm center will become the bomb cyclone, amplifying the rain from the Appalachians to the Atlantic beaches and the wind along the Atlantic coast as it moves northward through Wednesday night.

The National Weather Service is forecasting between 1 and 3 inches of rain with a squall line developing across Massachusetts late Wednesday afternoon carrying the biggest deluge and the best chances to top 3 inches or more of rain. The AccuWeather Local StormMax rainfall for this storm is 6 inches in the Southeast and 8 inches in the Northeast.

"Some rain will act like a giant firehose and organize into an intense north-to-south, west-to-east crawling squall with gusty winds," AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist Bernie Rayno said.

The High Wind Watch was issued on Monday from 4 a.m. on Wednesday to 3 a.m. on Thursday.

A plume of moisture will likely be traced for more than 2,000 miles — all the way from the northeastern U.S. to the Caribbean Sea and will "fit the definition of an atmospheric river," Rayno added.

If there is any good news with the storm, it is that it will not be wintry and it will provide relief to areas of Massachusetts that remain under extreme drought conditions. Because rivers are historically low with limited rain in recent months, the impact of what would typically be flooding rain should be mitigated.

High temperatures are expected to climb into the 60s on Wednesday before crashing back into the 30s on Thursday.

People are urged to secure holiday decorations as well as trash cans, recycling bins, tarps and trampolines so they do not become airborne projectiles that can injure people or damage property.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)