A powerful winter storm brewing near the Pacific Northwest known as a bomb cyclone is dragging an atmospheric river.

Tens of thousands of homes in Washington state lost power Tuesday and downed wires or trees locked some highways as Northern California and the Pacific Northwest started feeling the effects of a powerful atmospheric river event,

A powerful bomb cyclone is taking aim at the Pacific Northwest and northern California with hurricane force winds forecast to gust up to 70 mph with as much as 15 inches of rain and heavy snow in the mountains.