What is Bomb Cyclone?

In News

• Recently, ‘Bomb cyclone’ hit eastern US triggering transport chaos and outages.

What is a Bomb Cyclone?

• It is used by meteorologists to indicate a mid-latitude cyclone that intensifies rapidly. 
• It is a massive winter storm hammering the coast, bringing strong winds, flooding, ice and snow. 
• It is a combination of rapidly declining pressure and extreme cold. 
• This particular storm is the most explosive ever, observed on the east coast. 
• It is called a bomb cyclone, a dramatic name for what happens when the storm explosively strengthens while the pressure plummets.

Formation 

• A bomb cyclone happens when atmospheric pressure in the middle of the storm drops at least 24 millibars over 24 hours, quickly increasing in intensity. The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.

Different from Conventional Strom

• The occurrence, also known as explosive cyclogenesis, essentially amounts to a rapidly developing storm system, distinct from a tropical hurricane because it occurs over midlatitudes where fronts of warm and cold air meet and collide, rather than relying on the balmy ocean waters of late summer as a catalyst.
• Like a conventional cyclone, a bomb cyclone is the product of a low pressure system, where the atmospheric pressure is lower at sea level than in the surrounding area.
• Hurricanes form from late spring to early fall, while bomb cyclones form from late fall to early spring.

Source: TH