"Bomb Cyclone" Expected to Hit US East Coast Tomorrow, Plunging Temperatures Lower Than Those of Mars

Global warming, y'all.

(CNN)A massive "bombogenesis" -- an area of rapidly declining low pressure -- will wreak havoc on the Northeast this week, threatening hurricane-force winter wind gusts in a region already crippled by deadly cold.

The bombogenesis will result in what's known as a "bomb cyclone." And the bomb cyclone, expected to strike Thursday, will likely dump 6 to 12 inches of snow in New
By the end of this week, parts of the Northeast will be colder than Mars.

More on "bomb cyclones" and "bombogenesis:"

Bombogenesis is said to occur when a storm's central barometric pressure drops at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. (A millibar is a way of measuring pressure.) The lower the pressure, the more powerful the storm.

The word is a combination of cyclogenesis, which describes the formation of a cyclone or storm, and bomb, which is, well, pretty self-explanatory.

"This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters," NOAA said. "The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone."

In the 1940s, some meteorologists began informally calling some big coastal storms "bombs" because they develop "with a ferocity we rarely, if ever, see over land," said Fred Sanders, a retired MIT professor, who brought the term into common usage by describing such storms in a 1980 article in the journal Monthly Weather Review

Snow has hit Florida and Georgia already. And it apparently will be worse in the northeast.

Unless you're already hit by the storms, it's time to stock up on food and water.

Lower Than Those of Mars&bodytext=Global warming, y'all. (CNN)A massive "bombogenesis" -- an area of rapidly declining low pressure -- will wreak havoc on the Northeast this week, threatening hurricane-force winter wind gusts in a region already crippled by deadly cold. The bombogenesis will result...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 03:25 PM

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