Bomb Storm Sweeping Northeast; Just A Rainfall Here in Vermont

Satellite view of "bomb nor'easter" organizing off the
New Jersey coast this morning. You can see a lot of 
thunderstorms bubbling up southeast of New 
England, which is one of many signs this storm is
strengthening rapidly. 

An impressive so called bomb storm is causing a lot of trouble for the Northeast today with flooding, damaging winds and battering coastal waves, while we here in Vermont endure just another rainy day. 

A bomb storm is defined as one whose central air pressure drops by 24 millibars within 24 hours. Most of the time, the lower the air pressure in a storm the stronger it is. 

When the pressure's dropping fast, the storm is intensifying really quickly, and that situation can cause a dangerous storm.  

When a storm is strengthening like that, it tends to cause more trouble than when it's holding steady or weakening. The winds tend to be stronger in a storm that's growing more powerful and the moisture supply for heavy rain is increasing.

That's what's facing the Northeast.

The storm will probably "overperform" on Cape Cod and the Islands tonight, where gusts of at least 70 mph seem likely.  Leaves are still on the trees down there. Each leaf acts like a little sail in high winds, tugging the tree downwind much more than if the trees were bare.

That makes the trees more likely to topple over. In any event, they're telling everyone to take down their Halloween decorations and not park their cars under trees tonight. 

This type of storm can cause some big coastal storm surges and flooding as well. Luckily, astronomical tides right now are on the low side, so that will help prevent some damage. 

The storm has already dumped more than three inches of rain in New Jersey, and flooding is ongoing there. The high water isn't as bad as it was in September with ex-Hurricane Ida, but the flooding is causing new misery in a state that has been hard hit by repeatedly flooding and storms this year.

Heavy rain will cause flooding in southeastern New England tonight. 

This bomb nor'easter was still consolidating itself this morning. It's offshore of New Jersey, feeding off the warm waters of the Gulf Stream, and even taking on a little bit of tropical characteristics.

This bomb is in the process of absorbing a weakening separate storm on the Mid-Atlantic Coast. This arrangement is feeding rain northwestward across New England and into southern Quebec, which is why it's so rainy in Vermont this morning. 

Once the storm consolidates, it will draw the heavier rain closer to the main storm. This should help the rain taper off in Vermont today, especially north. So it won't be a mega storm for us.  Southern Vermont could get over an inch of rain out of this. The north should see a half inch or less, on top of the third of an inch or so we received yesterday.  

So nothing to write home to Ma about. 

As the storm lurks off the coast tomorrow, we'll be close enough to receive wind gusts as high as 35 mph across Vermont. That's not at all dangerous, but it will strip most of the remaining colorful leaves off the trees. Foliage season is just about over, folks. 

It's also pretty interesting that this "bomb nor'easter" in New England got its start from two other "bomb storms" that hit the West Coast in recent days with flooding rains and high winds.