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  • February 14, 2025
Atmospheric river brings weather whiplash to the East Coast as bomb cyclone develops

Atmospheric river brings weather whiplash to the East Coast as bomb cyclone develops

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The U.S. East Coast began a whiplash-inducing patch of weather Wednesday that was rainy, windy and potentially dangerous, partly due to an atmospheric river and the developing bomb cyclone.

Parts of Maine experienced freezing rain that caused vehicles to slide off the road, followed by a deluge of rain and unusually high temperatures — and the prospect of damaging winds — all in the same day, said Derek Schroeter, a forecaster with the National Weather Service . Some schools in New England were closed.

The heavy rain and high winds will continue into Wednesday night, and flash flooding was a concern because of the deluge and snowmelt, forecasters said. Utilities also braced for possible power outages due to damage caused by winds of more than 60 miles per hour.

One of the most important factors that determine the weather is an atmospheric riverwhich is a long band of water vapor that can transport moisture from the tropics to more northern areas, said Schroeter, based in Gray, Maine. New England was expected to bear the brunt of the storm moisture drained from the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of the southeastern U.S. and transported to places like Maine, Schroeter said.

Forecasters also said the storm had the potential to involve what meteorologists call a process bombogenesisor a ‘bomb cyclone’. That is the rapid intensification of a cyclone in a short period of time, and it has the potential to cause heavy rainfall.

The storm started Tuesday evening into early Wednesday with a combination of fog and light freezing rain. The ice piled up and travel became treacherous in parts of New England. A tractor-trailer carrying a load of oranges pulled off the Maine Turnpike in New Gloucester; the road was so treacherous that the oranges could not be removed until a day later.

Parts of the Northeast were already preparing for bad weather.

In New Hampshire, the Mount Washington Avalanche Center issued a special bulletin Wednesday for the Presidential Range of Mountains, which has seen significant snowfall over the past two weeks.

“Heavy rainfall can cause dangerous and unpredictable avalanche conditions on steep, snow-covered slopes,” the report said, creating unsafe conditions at stream crossings, ski and hiking trails and bridges.

A flood watch for Vermont runs from Wednesday afternoon through Thursday morning.

The city of Montpelier, Vermont, advised residents to elevate items in basements and low areas are sensitive to flooding. The city said Tuesday that it has been in contact with the National Weather Service and Vermont Dam Safety and will “actively monitor river levels as this storm passes.”

Ski resorts across the Northeast prepared visitors for a potentially messy day on Wednesday. Stratton Mountain Resort, in southern Vermont, posted on its website that customers should “make sure to pack your Gore-Tex gear because it will get wet.”

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Associated Press writers Lisa Rathke in Marshfield, Vermont, and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.