‘Bomb cyclone’ has sharks turning icy
DANGEROUSLY cold temperatures across a wide swath of the US have been blamed for at last nine deaths, with records toppling and more freezing weather on the way.
The National Weather Service issued wind chill advisories and freeze warnings covering a vast area from south Texas to Canada and from Montana through New England.
The Washington Post reported that more severe weather was on its way, with a huge storm set to batter the east coast from Maine to as far south as Georgia.
“The exploding storm will, in many ways, resemble a winter hurricane, battering easternmost New England with potentially damaging winds in addition to blinding snow,” the Post reported.
“Forecasters are expecting the storm to become a socalled ‘bomb cyclone’ because its pressure is predicted to fall so fast, an indicator of explosive strengthening. The storm could rank as the most intense over the waters east of New England in decades at this time of year.”
Indianapolis yesterday equalled a record low of minus 24C for January 2 set in 1887, leading Indianapolis Public Schools to cancel classes. And the northwest Indiana city of Lafayette got down to minus 28C, shattering the previous record of minus 21C for the date, set in 1979, the National Weather Service said.
“The temperatures are certainly extreme, but we’ve seen colder,” said Joseph Nield, a meteorologist in Indianapolis, noting that the all-time low temperature in Indiana was minus 38C in 1994.
So cold are conditions in the northeast of the country that several frozen sharks have been recovered from beaches in the New England area. The New York Times reports the gills on the sharks freeze up quickly and it takes no time at all for a shark to succumb to freezing conditions.
Pictures shared on social media by the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy show thresher sharks stranded “due to cold shock” in the Massachusetts area.
One of the sharks 4.2m long. was