US east coast braced for explosive ‘bomb cyclone’
FORECASTERS in the United States warned of a “bomb cyclone”, with already-freezing temperatures along the east coast set to plummet even further.
Blizzards, ice and snow were expected as storms hit New England last night while snow fell yesterday in Florida for the first time in more than a quarter of a century.
Meteorologists coined the “bomb cyclone” term because the storm’s pressure was predicted to fall so fast – an indicator of “explosive” strengthening. Experts say the storm could rank as the most intense over the waters east of New England in decades, for this time of year.
National Weather Service hurricane hunter aircraft were dispatched into the storm to gather data and refine the forecast given its possible severe impacts in coastal areas.
Ryan Maue, of the US weather service, warned on Twitter yesterday of the “rapidly developing ‘bomb cyclone’” bringing “hurricane force winds, blizzard conditions with heavy snowfall along the coast during the next 48-hours”.
New York City, meanwhile, was expecting three to six inches of snow overnight, but the storm was giving rise to predictions of such outlandish weather that Eric Fisher, a forecaster based in Boston, described the outlook for northern Florida as “bananagrams”.
In the Florida city of Tallahassee it was snowing for the first time in 28 years yesterday morning.
‘Rapidly developing ‘bomb cyclone’ [will bring] hurricane force winds, blizzards with heavy snowfall’