The entire Eastern seaboard, from Florida to Maine, is bracing for a bombogenesis.
That was not a typo. A bombogenesis is what meteorologists call an area of rapidly declining low pressure. And bombos are bad news right now, threatening to cause havoc on the Northeast this week, unleashing hurricane-force wind gusts upon a region already sucker-punched by deadly low temperatures. So far, 11 deaths have been attributed to the monster storm.
The bombogeneis, also called a “bomb cyclone” by weather experts, is expected to strike in full fury on Thursday. It’s payload? As many as twelve inches of snow across New England while the region gets whipsawed by 40- to 60-mph gusts. Schools and businesses will be slammed. And bombo-created flight delays could hurt air travelers across the country.
Here are some things you should know:
What is a bomb cyclone?
Used for decades in scientific papers and journals, a bombogenesis is described by NOAA as a weather pattern which occurs 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.
How bad will this one be?
While bombo cyclones are fairly common in certain parts of the world, this week’s storm promises to pack a real wallop: From Maine to Florida, CNN reports, “every East Coast state has at least one weather advisory, winter storm watch, winter storm warning or blizzard warning. That’s 1,500 miles of severe weather alerts.” Tallahassee resident Ernst Beliard said Wednesday morning that he had never seen snow in his 21 years there: “Yo its actually snowing in Tallahassee,” he tweeted. While winds can reach a ways inland, the snowfall is mostly expected to affect coastal areas. Here’s the GFS snowfall forecast from Tuesday night, courtesy of Tropicaltidbits.com, showing the progression of the storm up the East Coast:
How might flights be affected?
The massive storm building in the Atlantic will act like a winter version of a hurricane, according to The Points Guy, a frequent-traveler website. “The massive low will have similar pressure as Superstorm Sandy and pack hurricane-force winds. Airlines are bracing for major impacts and releasing travel waivers to allow passengers with flexible plans the chance to change their flights for free.” And this word of caution: “If you can’t delay your itinerary, airlines aren’t going to be responsible for paying for your meals or hotels in the case of weather-related delays/cancellations.”
For more information on which airports are most impacted and which airlines are offering waivers to passengers in need, go here.
Will local Bay Area airports be impacted by the bomb cylcone?
It’s still too early to tell, say airports officials. But Vicki Day with San Jose International Airport said early Wednesday that so far, at least, it was business at usual. “Most of our arrivals this morning are actually early and all of our scheduled departures later today are on time,” said Day. “I can’t say whether we’ll have problems later on this evening or tomorrow, but there are none that we foresee at the moment.”
Doug Yakel, spokesman for San Francisco International Airport, offered a similar take on things: “No delays or cancellations thus far due to Winter Storm Grayson, but this could change tomorrow,” he wrote in an email. “Looks like the major airlines have posted travel advisories for the region, allowing passenger to change their ticket without penalty.”
What makes this sort of storm so powerful?
Quartz.com reports that a bomb cyclone forms as a result of bombogenesis, also called explosive cyclogenesis. These terms refer to the speed with which the pressure in a cyclone quickly falls, often with a 24-hour period. “Pressure drops when a mass of cold air collides with a warm-air mass, typically over ocean water,” says the report. “The quicker and more significant the drop in pressure, the more powerful the storm.”
All day Thursday meteorologists are going to be glued to the new GOES-East satellite watching a truly amazing extratopical “bomb” cyclone off New England coast. It will be massive — fill up entire Western Atlantic off U.S. East Coast. Pressure as low as Sandy & hurricane winds pic.twitter.com/6M4S3y75wT
— Ryan Maue | weather.us (@RyanMaue) January 2, 2018
What areas will be hardest hit this week?
The Northeast should bear the brunt of the storm. New York City is expecting temperatures as low as 3 degrees and four inches of snow. Massachusetts and Rhode Island could see “near blizzard conditions” on Thursday, according to the National Weather Service which issued a winter storm watch for late Wednesday night through late Thursday night. Forecasters say these areas could see snow accumulations of 6 to 9 inches, with some areas getting as much as a foot of the white stuff. Snow could fall at the rate of 1 to 2 inches per hour, creating possible white-out conditions in the process.
The Boston Globe reported that coastal flooding in the region is also possible. “And after it’s done, the region will be plunged again into bitter cold Friday and Saturday, the forecasters said. That return to the deep freeze could be a serious problem if the storm’s winds knock out people’s electricity. The forecasters said they were especially concerned about damaging winds and power outages on the state’s coast.”
