What Is a Cyclone Bomb?
On Wednesday, a “cyclone bomb” hit Colorado . While the term sounds like something out of science fiction, it’s quite real: “bomb cyclone” is a scientific term describing the effects of bombogenesis, and this is another word that I am grateful for now in my vocabulary. So, to understand the cyclone bomb, you first need to understand bombogenesis.
Bombogenesis
According to the National Oceanic Survey , bombogenesis “describes a mid-latitude cyclone that is rapidly intensifying.”
Here is the complete definition of ocean service.
[Bombogenesis] occurs when a cyclone in mid-latitudes rapidly intensifies, falling at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. The millibar measures atmospheric pressure. This can happen when cold air mass collides with warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters. The formation of this rapidly hardening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates the so-called bomb cyclone.
This is called a “bomb” because it is an explosive storm that is coming quickly. Bombogenesis is a combination of two words: bomb and cyclogenesis. All storms are considered cyclones, and “genesis” means the beginning. So Bombogenesis is the beginning of an explosive storm.
Bomb cyclone
The lower the pressure, the stronger the storm or “bomb cyclone” will be. Stronger storms can mean strong winds and more snow.
In the case of Denver, when the Arctic air mass from the north collided with the warm, moist air mass that was over the area at the time, the pressure quickly dropped and a bomb cyclone was formed.
Basically, this means it was a violent storm that came quickly, not a slow storm that anyone could track as it approached.
While we don’t hear about them all too often, cyclone bombs usually occur at least once a year, according to the National Meteorological Service. With climate change, we may begin to see them much more often, as cold air continues to migrate a little further south than it has in the past.