A winter bomb cyclone is expected to bring blizzard conditions to parts of the East Coast from Maryland to southeastern New England from Sunday night into Monday morning. But what exactly is a blizzard?
A blizzard does not always mean “a lot of snow”, although it can certainly bring heavy snowfall, as this storm is expected to do to parts of the East Coast. Rather, the National Weather Service defines it as a blizzard that regularly has winds above 35 mph and “significant falling” or blowing snow for at least three hours. This weekend’s storm could drop one to two feet of snow in the hardest-hit areas, and snowfall rates could reach 2 to 3 inches per hour. Wind gusts of 40 to 70 mph could occur along the coast from New Jersey to New England.
Blizzard conditions can reduce visibility to less than 0.25 miles, making travel especially hazardous. New York City has imposed a travel ban on its streets effective Sunday night at 9 p.m.
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The winds and heavy, wet snow accompanying this storm can also cause power outages by downing power lines and tree branches.
Blizzard conditions may develop over the northwest portion of a very intense storm, as is the case with this system. This is because the main difference between the area of ​​low pressure in the center of the storm and the area of ​​high pressure to the west creates very intense winds. The storm will likely become a bomb cyclone – called a hurricane when it undergoes “bombogenesis”, defined by a pressure drop of at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
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