Brace yourself. Winter is coming… again.
With the official start of spring still about a week-and-a-half away, Mother Nature is making it known that we’re not done with the cold just yet as a bomb cyclone is set to pound the south and northeast United States with frigid conditions.
As defined by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), a bomb cyclone occurs due to a rapid decrease in pressure – 24 millibars in less than 24 hours – in a midlatitude cyclone, creating extreme winds in the process.
That means blizzard-like weather and potential wind damage for anyone and anything in its path.
The system will hit the south and southeast U.S. first, with heavy rain on tap for Friday night into Saturday morning.
WWL-TV meteorologist Michelle Morgan says, as the system develops over Louisiana, the change will be drastic.
“The New Orleans area will see strong thunderstorms, potentially severe,” Morgan said. “The main threat looks to be strong wind gusts.”
Morgan said while Friday afternoon will see fairly warm temperatures in the mid-70’s, that will all change as the precipitation moves through, and that by Saturday, it will be much, much colder in the Crescent City and its surrounding areas.
“We could actually see record-breaking lows on the Northshore,” Morgan said, forecasting 35 degrees as the Saturday low. The record is 33, set back in 1969. The Southshore could get down to 40 on Saturday.
As for Sunday, expect it to be even colder, with a forecasted low of 27 degrees. That would break the record of 29 set in 1969. The Southshore low for Sunday is currently set at 35.
But keep those shorts at the ready.
“The cool down is just for the weekend,” Morgan said. “Temperatures rebound into the 70’s by Monday.”
And the Big Easy is just the beginning for this weather system, which will then take aim at some of the country’s major metropolitan areas.
“The system is going to head across central plains into the northeast and strengthen potentially into a bomb cyclone,” Morgan said. “Because the temperatures are colder there, they could see significant snowfall.”
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