Potential Bomb Cyclone, Great Lakes Blizzard Ahead | Weather.com
1st image: Winter storm alerts, watches and advisories already issued by the National Weather Service, as of December 19th at 2 PM EST.
A major storm – named Winter Storm Elliott by The Weather Channel – could become a bomb cyclone over the Midwest later this week and bring blizzard conditions to parts of the Great Lakes as well as high winds to the East Coast, snarling travel in the days leading up to the Christmas holiday weekend.
This developing storm will also usher in bitterly cold air to much of the nation as far south as Texas, the Gulf Coast and Florida. For the latest, complete forecast on this cold snap, click here. …
… Bomb Cyclone Perspective
We mentioned earlier that this winter storm could become a bomb cyclone.
As a rule of thumb, meteorologists refer to a strengthening low as “bombing out” or undergoing bombogenesis if its minimum surface pressure drops by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours or less, though how much a pressure drops depends on a storm’s latitude.
Meteorologists frequently discuss pressure in terms of millibars, rather than inches of mercury. The lower the pressure in a storm, the more intense it is.
And the greater [the] difference in pressure over an area, the stronger the winds.
Winter Storm Elliott has the potential to plunge to a pressure that could threaten December low-pressure records in the Great Lakes, according to data compiled by Weather Prediction Center meteorologist David Roth. …
Bombogenesis!
*Bombogenesis!*