The storm from the US coast in the northwest and western Canada is pushing the region – bringing high winds, flooding and snow to more than seven million residents living in the states along the Pacific Ocean.
The storm has caused widespread power outages for hundreds of thousands of Americans, and its powerful winds have brought down trees.
At least one person — a woman near Seattle — has died.
The “bomb typhoon” – as forecasters call it – was created by a rapidly decreasing air pressure on the coast, which has quickly strengthened the weather.
The effects of the storm were visible Wednesday morning, with fallen trees damaging homes and blocking roads in Washington state.
A woman died when a tree fell on a homeless shelter in Lynwood, north of Seattle, Washington, according to a social media post from the South County Fire Department.
Strong winds lead to power outages. As of Wednesday morning, more than 600,000 homes in Washington were without power, according to poweroutage.us. About 15,000 customers had outages in California.
Many schools in Washington are expected to be closed or face disruption.
“It’s tough out there. Trees are down all over town, many on homes,” the Washington Fire Department in Bellevue said on social media. “If you can, go to the lowest floor and stay away from windows. Don’t go out unless you can avoid it.”
In northern California, the US Weather Prediction Center (WPC) said there was a high risk of excessive rainfall and warned of flash floods and mudslides. San Francisco Bay is expected to receive up to 8in (20cm) of rain.
The storm also made landfall in Canada, where winds are a major concern and gusts of up to 100mph (160km/h) were reported off the coast of Vancouver Island. About 140,000 customers were without power in British Columbia, according to the British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority.
BBC weather presenter Stav Danaos said damaging winds will continue to ease on Wednesday, although conditions are expected to remain grim along the Pacific coast from San Francisco to Vancouver Island.
And persistent heavy rain is expected throughout Thursday and Friday along much of the coast, as a renewed “wind stream” of moisture from the Pacific is driven ashore.
In addition to wind, rain and snow, a storm can bring floods, rock slides and debris flows, as well as heavy mountain snow, at high altitudes. The storm is expected to create blizzard conditions through the Cascade Range of mountains, which runs through the US and Canada.
The heavy, wet snow that fell in the Cascades and Northern Rockies will begin to melt later in the week as cooler air moves in.
This snowmelt, combined with other heavy rain, may lead to severe flooding in areas from Northern California to Oregon, with a high risk of landslides as the week ends.
Bomb cyclone the term given by meteorologists to a storm that appears to be rapidly intensifying, with its average atmospheric pressure dropping by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
They are called bomb storms because of the explosive power of these storms caused by the rapid collapse of pressure.
A hurricane comes with a variety of weather, from tornadoes to severe thunderstorms to heavy rain.
These weather events are unusual for this time of year.
The same is called the events of the cosmic river – where small areas of moisture move out of the tropics – have occurred across North America in the past few weeks.
But atmospheric river conditions combined with a bomb cyclone can create a major weather event.
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