Live look: Bomb cyclone thrashes Northern California, downs power and trees

As the Bay Area braced itself Wednesday morning for a “bomb cyclone” approaching the region, parts of Northern California began enduring the worst of the storm.

By noon, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency over the extreme weather event while public safety workers across Sonoma County were ramping up their response to reports of downed power lines and trees. Outages affecting up to 17,000 residents were also reported in downtown San Jose.

This latest storm is an atmospheric river, essentially a giant conveyor belt of water in the sky and moisture-rich maelstrom rolling in from the Pacific Ocean to fill California’s reservoirs and blanket the Sierra Nevada with snow, which has the potential to cause catastrophic flooding and mudslides.

By the scale used to measure the strength and impact of such weather systems, this torrent is a Category 3 out of 5. The scale meteorologists use bases the five categories of intensity on the duration of the tempest and the magnitude of water content called the Integrated Water Vapor Transport (IVT).

Wednesday’s atmospheric river is also being labeled a “bomb cyclone” for its rapid strengthening off-shore. That term describes an area of low pressure that intensified by 24 millibars within 24 hours, with millibars being a unit of measurement for atmospheric pressure.

Grounded from lofty definitions and weather science meanwhile are the residents grappling with surviving the wind-whipped deluge. Below are photos documenting their experiences. While we encourage your safest preparation and response to this emergency, if you have any visuals to share, please email photovideo@bayareanewsgroup.com.