Ice ‘bomb’ hits city, schools closed
Icy ‘bomb cyclone’ is set to detonate over Apple
New Yorkers are about to feel winter’s wrath.
An enormous “bomb cyclone” is bringing frigid winds, dangerously cold temperatures and up to a halffoot of snow to the Big Apple on Thursday — and it could last through the weekend.
Round 1 of the winter walloping was set to begin just after midnight, with three to six inches of snow predicted around the city, according to AccuWeather.
The bomb cyclone — formally known as a bombogenesis — is a weather phenomenon created when cold air masses collide with warm air masses over ocean waters.
“These storms don’t happen every day, week or winter, but they do happen from time to time,” said Dave Dombek, senior meteorologist at AccuWeather.
“And they’re exactly how they sound. They really just bomb out, go crazy and intensify in a really rapid pace in a very short time. That’s the benchmark.”
Meteorologists expect this bombogenesis to wreak havoc on the tristate area for several days, with temperatures dropping to a record low of 3 degrees on Saturday night.
The previous record of 4 degrees was set in 2014.
“You gotta take this seriously,” Dombek said. “If you’re traveling in the snow and stuff, that’s one issue. What you better be well-prepared for is the wind and dangerous cold that’s going to be out there.”
Dombek warned that while the snowfall total is expected to be relatively low, it shouldn’t be taken lightly.
“The morning commute is going to be rough, and the evening commute isn’t going to be a walk in the park, either,” he said, adding that Brooklyn and Queens would see the most white stuff.
The snow is forecast to stop falling by Thursday afternoon.
Dombek said it will come down the hardest between 5 a.m. and noon. Once the snow tapers off, expect to deal with slick road conditions and freezing winds.
“Following the snow, we will see the wind, the bitter cold,” Dombek said. “We won’t be getting out of the teens this weekend. The temperature
is forecast to dip down to 3 degrees or lower, with the record low for [Saturday].”
The National Weather Service issued a winter storm warning for New York City, Nassau County and parts of Connecticut — extending to Long Island and the Jersey Shore, where up to a foot of snow is forecast.
In preparation for the Thursday’s “bomb,” officials with the city Office of Emergency Management issued a hazardous-travel advisory and urged people to spend the weekend inside.
Alternate-side parking regulations were suspended Thursday and Friday to facilitate snow removal. Meters were slated to still be in effect.
More than 600 flights have been cancelled locally, including 256 at La Guardia and 144 at JFK.
And it’s not just the northeast dealing with deadly, bone-chilling conditions.
At least 12 people across the US died this week in cold-related deaths, according to officials: six in Wisconsin, four in Texas, one in North Dakota and another in Missouri.
Residents from Maine to Florida and every East Coast state in between were reported to be under weather advisories, winter-storm watches, winter-storm warnings or blizzard warnings on Thursday.
Southerners in states like South Carolina and Georgia, who rarely see snow, were preparing for a downfall as forecasts predicted up to 4 inches in some parts.
The term bomb cyclone has left some people puzzled.
It dates back to the 1940s, when meteorologists began gan calling strong storms spawning over oceans “bombs” be-because they developed with similar ferocity.
Fred Sanders, a former MIT professor who died inn 2006, brought the explosive term into common usage in a 19800 article in the Monthly Weather Review called “Synoptic Dynamic Climatology of the ‘Bomb.’ ”
John R. Gyakum, who co-authored the paper, said, “I don’t think it’s too much of an exaggeration to view the explosively developing cyclone as a bomb. It’s an easy path to take and a much easier term to use.”