An urgent weather warning has been issued for eight East Coast states with a bomb cyclone expected to unleash hurricane conditions in the region. 

Meteorologists predict that states from Maine to New York will see the worst impacts, with dangerous flooding and widespread power outages predicted to start on Wednesday evening.

A bomb cyclone is a meteorological term for a storm between the tropics and polar region that rapidly strengthens over a 24-hour period, often leading to considerable damage.  This super-charged storm will bring wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour, as well as torrential rainfall of eight inches in places, which will be amplified by an atmospheric river stretching 2,000 miles along the coast.

An atmospheric river is a long and narrow region of the atmosphere that carries warmth and moisture from the tropics toward Earth’s poles. 

The East Coast has been hit with unseasonably high temperatures this week, with New York City topping 61 degrees on Wednesday, 30 above the December average. 

‘The impactful nature of the storm in coastal areas of the Northeast will be like a landfilling strong tropical storm or hurricane,’ AccuWeather meteorologists stated. 

The heavily populated metro areas of Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut could see significant urban and small stream flooding, according to AccuWeather.

‘The risk for significant flooding will be further amplified across the higher elevations of Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine where there is a considerable snowpack of several inches on the ground,’ AccuWeather meteorologist Jonathan Porter warned.

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