Winter storm may intensify and hit East Coast as bomb cyclone
Much of the East Coast is on high alert for another potentially powerful winter storm.
A weekend storm could intensify into a “bomb cyclone,” with the potential for significant snow, strong winds and some coastal flooding from the Carolinas to New England, including areas still recovering from last weekend’s snow and ice storm, according to Weather.com.
“There is an increasing risk for a rapidly strengthening coastal storm this weekend,” said Carl Erickson, AccuWeather director of forecasting operations, in an email to USA Today. “Communities along the East Coast still digging out and cleaning up from last weekend’s storm could be hit again with more snow.”
Where is snow most likely?
The best chance of heavier snowfall accumulations from the storm appear to be in two areas, said Weather.com meteorologist Jonathan Erdman in an online forecast:
- From southern Virginia to North Carolina and perhaps parts of South Carolina.
- Parts of eastern New England, potentially including areas that picked up over 20 inches of snow from last weekend’s winter storm.
According to the National Weather Service, “the ongoing consensus is for a heavy snow potential from the eastern Carolinas and coastal Mid-Atlantic through coastal southern/eastern New England.”
Wind, coastal flooding and erosion possible
The forecast strength of the storm also supports high winds/waves and coastal flooding threats, the weather service said. “Potential impacts include not just heavy precipitation but also strong winds and coastal flooding as the storm will have a tight pressure gradient with a very strong wind field,” the weather service in Mount Holly, New Jersey, said.
In addition, “along the mid-Atlantic coast, increasing onshore winds coincident with astronomical high tides may lead to periods of coastal flooding and dangerous surf this weekend,” the weather service said.
And according to AccuWeather senior meteorologist Alex Sosnowski, “even if a more moderate storm unfolds and tracks within a couple of hundred miles of the mid-Atlantic and New England coasts this weekend, increasing winds from the northeast and north will raise seas and the likelihood of coastal flooding.”
“How intense and close the storm tracks are will determine the strength of the winds and severity of coastal flooding and beach erosion from North Carolina to Massachusetts and Maine,” he said.
Where are impacts most likely?
As of Wednesday morning, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Weather Prediction Center shows only a 20% chance of the most extreme impacts over the Carolinas and eastern Virginia, with a broader band along the coast from the Carolinas facing a likelihood of 5% to 10% chance of severe impacts.
The area with the greatest chances for moderate impacts, more than 60%, spreads from central South Carolina across eastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia and along the coasts of Delaware and Maryland. Major impacts mean “considerable” disruptions to daily life, with dangerous conditions and widespread closures and disruptions.
What is a bomb cyclone?
The storm is predicted to be a “bomb cyclone,” which occurs through a process known as bombogenesis, and is basically a wintertime hurricane.
Bombogenesis occurs when a storm’s barometric pressure drops by 24 millibars – a millibar is a way of measuring pressure – in 24 hours.
The word bombogenesis is a combination of cyclogenesis, which describes the formation of a cyclone or storm, and bomb, which is pretty self-explanatory.
Even though bomb cyclones sometimes share characteristics with hurricanes, it is important to note that they are not hurricanes, and the two types of storms are different in important ways.
This East Coast storm will also likely become a nor’easter, a term for an East Coast storm in which the winds ahead – to the north – of the storm come from the northeast, according to Weather.com.