The Bay Area and Northern California awoke Wednesday to the arrival of a storm fueled by a strong atmospheric river and intensified by a so-called "bomb cyclone" off the Pacific Northwest coast.

A powerful winter storm, brewing this week over Northern California and the Pacific Northwest, is what meteorologists call a bomb cyclon

A “bomb cyclone” riding a long atmospheric river toward the West Coast is expected to bring more than a foot of rain to parts of Northern California and 30-foot waves to the Oregon