Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

What is 'Bomb Cyclone', the winter storm wreaking havoc across US?

Airline cancellations topped 5,700 U.S. flights on Friday as massive winter storms snarled airport operations around the United States and frustrated tens of thousands of holiday travellers.

What is 'Bomb Cyclone', the winter storm wreaking havoc across US?

An arctic blast that has gripped much of the United States this week, disrupting daily life and holiday travel for millions of Americans, was expected to produce the coldest Christmas Eve on record in several cities from Pennsylvania to Florida.

From the Canadian to the Mexican border and coast to coast, some 240 million people in all were under winter weather warnings and advisories of some sort on Friday, according to the weather service.


The extreme cold weather is due to a phenomenon called a "bomb cyclone".

The US National Weather Service said this "once in a generation type event" has the power to turn deadly and is already breaking cold-weather records - with temperatures falling to minus 53 degrees Celsius (minus 63 Fahrenheit) in western Canada, minus 38 in Minnesota and minus 13 in Dallas.

It's even snowing in subtropical northern Florida.

What is Bomb Cyclone?

A bomb cyclone, or bombogenesis, is a quickly intensifying storm that occurs when air pressure drops 20 millibars or more within 24 hours.

This usually happens when a warm air mass collides with a cold one, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

This time air from the Arctic ploughed into tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico, forming a depression bringing rain and snow.

What makes this storm extraordinary is just how fast the pressure dropped -- 40 millibars in 24 hours, according to meteorologist Yann Amice of analysts Weather'n'co.

"This has led to the development of extreme storm conditions near the core of the low pressure system, with particularly harsh conditions," said Cyrille Duchesne, a meteorologist from the French Weather Channel.

The unprecedented nature of this storm comes from the intensity and extremity of its low temperatures, Duchesne said.

"That's what makes it exceptional," he said.

The storm has sparked a "polar vortex plunge" where a particularly cold air mass from the Arctic heads south toward the lower, warmer latitudes.

The result is a vertiginous drop in temperatures -- in Denver, for example, temperatures dropped 33 degrees Celsius in barely seven hours.

Combined with blizzards and snow, the wind chill in regions like the Great Plains can make it feel like minus 55 degrees.

The US National Weather Service warned that such cold can lead to frostbite on exposed skin within a matter of minutes, hypothermia and even death if exposed to these conditions for too long.

This makes travel of any kind "dangerous" and even "impossible", it added.

This weekend the low pressure currently hanging over the Great Plains and Midwest should move north towards Quebec, likely bringing strong winds and heavy snow before moving on to the northeastern US, which should not be quite so severely affected, Duchesne said.

(Reuters)

More For You

Veterans urge nation to 'unite and remember' in VE Day letter

Samina Mahroof, a cutter at the JW Plant Flag Company works on flag orders ahead of the VE Day 80th anniversary on March 18, 2025 in Leeds, England. (Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

Veterans urge nation to 'unite and remember' in VE Day letter

TEN surviving Second World War veterans, including three from the British Indian Army, have written an open letter urging people across the UK to come together and remember the sacrifices made during the war.

Launched on Wednesday (23) by the /Together Coalition, the letter is part of a wider campaign marking the 80th anniversary of Victory in Europe (VE) Day, which falls on May 5.

Keep ReadingShow less
Vinay Narwal

Lieutenant Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy, 26, from Haryana, was among those killed in the attack in Kashmir's Pahalgam.

Photo: X/@indiannavy

Navy officer on honeymoon, grandfather vacationing with grandkids among 26 killed in Kashmir attack

LIEUTENANT Vinay Narwal of the Indian Navy had been married just six days earlier. He was on his honeymoon in Pahalgam when he was shot in the head by a terrorist while eating bhelpuri with his wife.

Manjunatha, a tourist from Karnataka, was asked if he was Hindu or Muslim before being shot dead.

Keep ReadingShow less
Who is Saifullah Kasuri, the  mastermind behind Pahalgam attack?

Saifullah Kasuri

Who is Saifullah Kasuri, the  mastermind behind Pahalgam attack?

THE tourist town of Pahalgam in India's Jammu and Kashmir witnessed one of the worst terror attacks in the region on Tuesday (22) since the abrogation of Article 370. A group of heavily armed terrorists opened fire on unsuspecting tourists at Baisaran meadow, killing 26 people and injuring many more.

The attack sent shockwaves across the country and drew condemnation from leaders both in India and abroad. Within hours, a group known as The Resistance Front (TRF), widely believed to be a proxy of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), claimed responsibility.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hertfordshire Police treat vandalism of Muslim graves as Islamophobic hate crime

The damage to plaques at Carpenders Park Cemetery has sparked outrage in the Muslim community

Hertfordshire Police treat vandalism of Muslim graves as Islamophobic hate crime

Grant Williams

HERTFORDSHIRE Police have said they are “confident” the desecration of Muslim graves at a cemetery in north London “was a religiously motivated act”.

The leader of the council that owns the cemetery visited the site last week to speak to grieving families following the horrific incident.

Keep ReadingShow less
‘Hinduphobia’ report tabled in Scottish parliament

The Hinduphobia in Scotland report was authored by Dhruva Kumar, Neil Lal, Sukhi Bains, Anuranjan Jha and Ajit Trivedi

‘Hinduphobia’ report tabled in Scottish parliament

A MEMBER of the Scottish parliament has put forward a motion in the House commending the work of a Glasgow-based Gandhian society that drafted a report highlighting the “rising levels of prejudice, discrimination and marginalisation” of Hindus in Scotland.

Ash Regan, an Alba Party member of the Scottish parliament (MSP) representing Edinburgh Eastern, tabled the motion based on the report by the charity Gandhian Peace Society earlier this month.

Keep ReadingShow less