The bomb cyclone will bring a lot of snow to the Northeastern U.S., starting Friday night. Why is the storm's path up in the air?
According to a report from Weather.com, the storm will drop at least a foot (30 centimeters) of snow in cities along the New England coast, along with minor flooding and Hurricane -force wind gusts. The bulk of the storm will hit Rhode Island and Massachusetts Friday night, with the New England coast likely to be impacted from Maine down to Virginia.
The NWS says that extratropical storms like this one start as low-pressure systems over the northern Atlantic ocean. They can happen at any time of the year, but they usually occur in the winter.
The 20 most destructive hurricanes to hit the US.
The strongest winds over the mid-Atlantic coast tend to originate from the northeast. The storms are formed when the warm Gulf Stream current in the Atlantic Ocean interacts with the polar jet stream above it that is carrying air down from Canada. When the cold jet stream collides with the warm Gulf Stream, it creates a low-pressure system that can turn into a bomb. The difference in temperature creates a storm that 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217 800-273-3217
The strength of a storm is determined by the drop in pressure at the storm's core.
Bombogenesis is a rapid intensification of a storm caused by a sudden drop in barometric pressure. A monster storm can develop if the pressure drops in a 24 hour period.
The storm is expected to become a bomb before hitting the coast. The storm is expected to cause flooding and power outages in the Northeast. White-out conditions and wind gusts up to 100 km/h are expected, according to the NWS Boston. The effects are likely to extend as far south as the Carolinas, which are predicted to experience rain showers from the storm. Massachusetts and Rhode Island are expected to get the most snow and wind. It's difficult to predict where the storm will be the most severe and how much snow will fall.
Unlike their tropical relatives, which form far from the coast and strengthen over time, nor' easters typically form less than 100 miles from the coast, according to the National Weather Service. The lack of time to study the storm's potential trajectory contributes to the uncertainty surrounding where the core of the storm will make landfall and how severe its impact will be.
It was originally published on Live Science.
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