While much of U.S. is still reeling from dangerous storms and frigid temperatures that swept across the nation last weekend, more intense weather is headed for millions. This time, it includes a “bomb cyclone.”
This type of weather phenomenon – described by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a midaltitude cyclone that rapidly intensities over 24 hours – is also called “bombogenesis” and it can happen when cold air masses meet warm air masses. Cyclones also refer to rapidly rotating storm systems.
A bomb cyclone previously hit the U.S. just last month. Audacy reported that the storm put millions under weather warnings during the peak of the holiday travel season.
This week, there is “an increasing risk for a rapidly strengthening coastal storm this weekend,” said Carl Erickson, AccuWeather director of forecasting operations, in an email sent to USA Today. He also said “communities along the East Coast still digging out and cleaning up from last weekend’s storm could be hit again with more snow.”
According to The Weather Channel, the East Coast storm will intensify into a bomb cyclone. It is expected to bring heavy snow, strong winds and coastal flooding from the nor’easter storm (named Winter Storm Gianna by The Weather Channel) all the way from the Carolinas up to New England.
“It’s a scary sounding phrase, but it turns out bomb cyclones happen about once a year off the East Coast in the colder months, feeding off the sharp contrast between cold air over land moving over the warmer ocean,” the outlet explained.
CNN reported Thursday that more than 20 million people were under winter storm watches from eastern Georgia into the Carolinas and southern Virginia. Coastal locations could see blizzard conditions this weekend, it added.
“Computer forecast models are increasingly aligned on a low-pressure system forming off the Carolinas early Saturday and intensifying rapidly into a bomb cyclone,” said CNN. “How closely the storm hugs the coast as it moves north through the weekend will determine how much snow, if any, falls across the mid-Atlantic and Northeast.”
Fox Weather reported that the “nor’easter bomb cyclone,” threatens millions on the East Coast with heavy snow and intense wind.
In a Thursday forecast update, the National Weather Service said that a storm will begin moving northeastward along the Southeast Coast Saturday. However, it is expected to produce snow and rain over parts of the Middle/Lower Mississippi Valley by Thursday evening before moving across the southern Ohio and Tennessee Valleys on Friday morning.
“By Friday evening into Saturday, the snow will move into the southern Mid-Atlantic and rain over the Southeast,” the NWS said. It also said “this rapidly deepening storm system will produce powerful onshore winds along the Mid-Atlantic Coast from the North Carolina Outer Banks northward.”
Wind gusts are expected to have near hurricane force that are in turn expected to coincide with astronomical high tides. That combination could lead to significant coastal flooding.
“High pressure moving southward out of Central Canada will create upslope snow over the Northern/Central Plains from Thursday afternoon through Friday,” the NWS added. “Moreover, low pressure moving across South-Central Canada will produce light snow over the Northern Plains on Saturday morning.”
Though the bomb cyclone conditions are expected on the East Coast, the Great Lakes won’t be left out of the snowy conditions this weekend. Per the NWS, lake-effect snow will develop downwind from the Great Lakes from Thursday into late Friday night.