Bomb cyclone in northern Pacific Ocean may challenge all-time records - UPDATED Sets Record at 921 mb

And the hits keep coming. Please leave 2020.

…HURRICANE FORCE WIND WARNING…
.LOW 48N168E 928 MB MOVING NE 15 KT. WITHIN 150 NM S SEMICIRCLE
WINDS 60 TO 95 KT. SEAS 30 TO 53 FT. ELSEWHERE WITHIN 300 NM
SE…240 NM SW…BETWEEN 90 NM AND 180 NM NW QUADRANTS…AND
WITHIN 360 NM NE AND E OF A FRONT FROM 50N168E TO 49N175E TO
41N172E TO 33N161W WINDS 45 TO 60 KT. SEAS 18 TO 42 FT. ALSO
WITHIN 360 NM SW SEMICIRCLE…360 NM NW…480 NM NE
QUADRANTS…AND WITHIN 480 NM E AND SE OF FRONT S OF 48N WINDS 35
TO 50 KT. SEAS 12 TO 32 FT…HIGHEST S OF THE LOW. OTHERWISE S OF
58N W OF 174W WINDS 25 TO 35 KT. SEAS 12 TO 32 FT…HIGHEST W OF
THE FRONT.
.24 HOUR FORECAST LOW 54N174E 924 MB. FRONT TO EXTEND FROM
58N178E TO 58N175W TO 51N163W TO 48N164W TO 30N169E. FROM 42N TO
52N BETWEEN 160E AND 178W WINDS 50 TO 65 KT. SEAS 28 TO 54 FT.
ELSEWHERE WITHIN 240 NM NE OF FRONT N OF 54N…360 NM SE OF FRONT
S OF 47N…AND WITHIN 840 NM S…360 NM E…AND 240 NM N
QUADRANTS WINDS 35 TO 50 KT. SEAS 20 TO 44 FT…EXCEPT NW OF
FRONT SEAS 12 TO 24 FT. ALSO S OF 64N W OF 155W…EXCEPT S OF 35N
W OF 170E…WINDS 25 TO 40 KT. SEAS 10 TO 28 FT…EXCEPT WITHIN
360 NM E AND 600 NM SE QUADRANTS OF LOW SEAS 22 TO 42 FT.
.48 HOUR FORECAST LOW 54N178E 940 MB. WITHIN 780 NM S QUADRANT
WINDS 40 TO 55 KT. SEAS 26 TO 45 FT. ELSEWHERE…EXCEPT WHERE
DESCRIBED WITH LOW 41N177W BELOW…FROM 34N TO 64N W OF 165W
WINDS 25 TO 40 KT. SEAS 18 TO 38 FT…HIGHEST NEAR 50N176W.

That pinwheel of troughs on the backside is mind blowing. I’ve never seen anything like that.

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Monster North Pacific Storm Sets Record:

A rapidly deepening and intense hurricane-force storm over the western North Pacific has set an all-time record low central pressure of 921 mb breaking the previous record of 924 mb recorded on Nov 8th, 2014 over the Bering and tied in Dec 2015.

The NOAA NWS High Seas Forecast earlier today was predicting winds of 60-95 knots within 300 south of the low center with significant wave heights up to 60 feet(18.3 meters). I cannot remember ever seeing a forecast up to 95 knots wind for an extratropical storm.

These winter storms are extratopical cyclones, storm systems that get energy from horizontal temperature gradients and are often associated with frontal zones. Tropical cyclones, in contrast, are generated by the energy released as clouds and rain form in warm, moist, tropical air masses.
Extratropical cyclones occur throughout the year and can vary widely in size from under 100 nautical miles to over 2500 nautical miles. On average, extra-tropical cyclones last about 5 days, however, hurricane-force wind events associated with these systems typically occur during the rapidly deepening phase of the cyclone and that hurricane force conditions were short lived, on average lasting less than 24 hours in duration.

During the cold weather season Arctic air masses will move out over both the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans and interact with low latitude tropical air to produce large temperature gradients and strong frontal boundaries. Low pressure centers will then intensify using the temperature contrast as one of the main ingredients for development. When surface winds reach 64 knots the system is classified as “hurricane force”.

Warm ocean currents like the Gulf Stream in the Atlantic and the Kuroshio current in the North Pacific enhance the temperature contrast and thus add significant energy to these developing storm systems.

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That low has weakened to a still-deep 957mb and is stationary in the Aleutians. There’s a strong jet across the N Pacific storm track that’s pushing the developing systems across pretty quickly. Bad time to be making a crossing, good time to be a West Coast surfer.

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The storm unleashed seas as high as 54 feet (16.5 meters) and winds topping 80 miles per hour (120 kph) – a force of Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale – in the western Aleutians, the weather service said.