BOMB CYCLONE
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Context
- ‘Bomb cyclone’ hits eastern U.S., triggers transport chaos, outages.
About
- A bomb cyclone is a large, intense midlatitude storm that has low pressure at its center, weather fronts and an array of associated weather, from blizzards to severe thunderstorms to heavy precipitation.
- It becomes a bomb when its central pressure decreases very quickly—by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
- In simple terms, bombogenesis is a storm (low pressure area) that undergoes rapid strengthening.
- This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters.
- The vast majority of such storms occur over the ocean. The storm can be tropical or non-tropical in nature.
Key Features
Bomb cyclones have cold air and fronts:
- Cold air rapidly weakens hurricanes, while it is an essential ingredient for bomb cyclones.
Bomb cyclones form during winter:
- Hurricanes form from late spring to early fall, while bomb cyclones form from late fall to early spring.
Bomb cyclones form at higher latitudes:
- Hurricanes form in tropical waters, while bomb cyclones form over the northwestern Atlantic, northwestern Pacific and sometimes the Mediterranean Sea.Many of the infamous storms that have battered the East Coast and sank ships in the northwestern Atlantic Ocean throughout history were bomb cyclones.
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