U.S. East Coast and Quebec to Face “Weather Bomb” Event

A major snowstorm is expected to affect the eastern United States and Quebec between Friday night and Sunday morning. The phenomenon is described as a “weather bomb”.

A very deep low-pressure system is moving up from the southern ocean towards the American east coast and will cause major disruptions for the 45 million Americans affected. With heavy snowfalls in 24 hours, winds worthy of a category 1 hurricane, and a risk of coastal flooding, storm Kenan is part of what American meteorologists call a “bomb cyclon”. Why such a name? Because the low-pressure system is moving up along the coast and deepening very quickly, causing its atmospheric pressure to drop by at least 24 hp in the space of a day, which is the necessary condition to speak of a “bomb”.

This dizzying drop in pressure could go down to 965 hp on Saturday and be accompanied by very severe weather from North Carolina to Maine, over the coastal cities of Philadelphia, New York, Boston or Portland: up to 60 centimetres of snow locally, or even more depending on the exact path of the storm. These snowfalls will be accompanied by winds of more than 115 km/h, generating a veritable blizzard that will paralyze traffic and airports, and waves may submerge the coast during high tide on Saturday. The bad weather will then move up to eastern Quebec over the weekend.

Combined with a polar cold that goes all the way down to Florida, Kenan could be the strongest winter storm of the winter for the east coast of the United States.