What Makes a Bomb Cyclone

This video is a part of Animated Atmosphere, a suite of short videos produced by the UCAR Center for Science Education with FableVision Studios.

 

A bomb cyclone can cause severe winter weather. A bomb cyclone is a storm outside the tropics that has very low air pressure at its center. Bomb cyclones typically occur in the winter and can cause cold and stormy winter weather. Bombogenesis is the process of air pressure falling rapidly, which makes a storm into a bomb cyclone.

Transcript

Is there a cooler sounding weather word than Bombogenesis?

Our friend here doesn't think so.

But what exactly is Bombogenesis?

Bombogenesis turns a typical winter storm into a bomb cyclone, an intense storm

in the mid-latitudes when cold Arctic air clashes with warmer

air, the temperature difference triggers a rapid drop in air pressure.

It's almost like an explosion inside the storm.

With low pressure.

Winds flow quickly into the center of the storm

and can intensify the amount of clouds and precipitation.

Bomb cyclones can produce severe flooding, blizzard conditions, hurricane force

winds, and destructive waves, so make sure you're stocked up and ready

to be inside for a while, potentially without power.

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