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Millions of Americans are facing a warning of a "bomb cyclone" on Monday (December 29) as strong winds are forecast for the Midwestern and Northeastern regions of the United States, Accuweather.com reports.
Winds reported to be between 40 MPH and 60 MPH are forecast around the Great Lakes Monday night.
"Such strong winds will lead to power outages, downed tree limbs and airborne holiday decorations," AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Bill Deger said.
Winds will kick up from Tuesday (December 30) to Wednesday (December 31) and strong gusts may develop around the second clipper storm from Wednesday to Thursday (January 1) with a combination of wind, moisture and other factors dropping the RealFeel temperature to about 10 to 20 degrees lower than the actual temperature for most of the week.
Approximately 20 million Americans were previously under wind alerts as of Sunday (December 28) morning, which later rose to more than 50 million later in the afternoon, according to CBS News. New York City's Central Park had already been hit with 4.3 inches of snow, which was less than initially predicted, but was the first storm exceeding four inches since January 2022.
At least 4,400 flights were canceled across the United States since Friday (December 26) and thousands more were reported to have experienced delays, according to FlightAware.
The National Ocean Service defines a bomb cyclone, or "bombogenesis" as its commonly referred to by meteorologists, as an occurrence that takes place, "when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours. A millibar measures atmospheric pressure."
"This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters," the website states. "The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone."