How Hurricane Isaias's Remnants Became a Bomb Cyclone Over the North Atlantic
Hurricane Isaias was the only Atlantic hurricane to date in 2026, making landfall in Florida as a Category 2 storm on October 9. Its remnants kept going: riding the jet stream east over the North Atlantic, they developed into a powerful storm known as an extratropical cyclone.
During that journey the system's air pressure plummeted by more than 50 hectopascals over a 24-hour period, according to reports — approximately double the criteria for explosive cyclogenesis, or bombogenesis.
Some meteorologists believe the storm may have set a new October low for barometric pressure in Iceland after correcting for altitude, which would likely break a record that has stood since 1963.
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Extratropical sounds like a downgrade, and it isn't. These low-pressure systems often bring asymmetrical, comma-shaped cloud patterns and can strike with hurricane-force winds, rain and blizzard-like conditions — this one put a 205-kilometre-per-hour gust near Eyjafjallajökull and sustained 150-kilometre-per-hour winds on a small island just offshore.
The violence is not in dispute; the record is. That possible October pressure low for Iceland is what some meteorologists believe, and the cyclone grazed the coast rather than sitting over it — the country was lashed with high winds as the storm passed.