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Bomb Cyclone? Bombogenesis? What the heck?!?!?

10K views 45 replies 21 participants last post by  Tractor-Holic 
#1 ·
I heard we were in for some weather, as in bad, later today and through the night, so I was checking around the interweb for updates and found these terms describing what could occur in the Northeast part of the Country. Don't recall seeing these terms before. Anyhow, it would seem if the process of bombogenesis occurs, then you have a bomb cyclone. Which means, generally, pressure must drop 24 millibars (a unit of pressure) within 24 hours, plus other factors I guess.

In my terms we're going to get some strong winds to 60mph, rain up to and over 3 inches and widespread flooding. With that soak and high winds might be some trees uprooting also. This one might sneak up on some folks. If you're in the path, please be safe.
 
#2 ·
The terms have previously been used among meteorologists. As with any technical field, there is scientific jargon associated.

Now that weather is an advertising monster the network writers are releasing this terminology to the public to drum up views. Like winter storm names? Yeah NOAA does not recognize those and actually prefers others do not use them. It makes every winter storm seem like a hurricane thus fueling the "weather as news" cycle.
 
#7 ·
Actually, you are very right! ONLY the Weather Channel names winter storms in an effort to boost clicks and ratings and no other websites follow their lead unless they are part of the corporate ownership. IBM has been the longtime owner of the Weather Channel, but was sold last year to Entertainment Studios.

Technical jargon is very different than layman's terms and is often used by those reporters that have zero science background to give the impression that they are knowledgeable on whatever subject.
 
#3 ·
I can see that, I mean those terms sound pretty ominous, right? Click bait a go-go. I saw bomb cyclone, and visions of my toilet exploding under me filled my head.
 
#5 ·
Ellis and others,
Stay safe. We are just supposed to get rain & some wind further inland here. We can use it. Ground is dry as a bone.
 
#9 ·
The good thing about this storm is that it is moving very quickly and won't stick around for days (see Blizzard of '78, Feb.6-7). We are still expecting 2-4" in 12-18 hours as it passes directly over New York and New England.
 
#10 ·
We’re expecting about 2” of rain and 50-60 mph winds along the SW Maine coast. But to echo the overall theme of the thread, the stations and forecasters are doing their part in over sensationalizing the storm.
 
#12 ·
Um, your "Blizzard of '78, Feb.6-7" was a nor'easter, which this fall storm isn't.
 
#14 ·
We had the Bomb Cyclone last night. It was beautiful starry sky, then thunder and lightning and pounding rain for about 3-4 hours. No damage, no trees up-routed. I think it was just beginning to ramp up, you know up in Canada we make the bad weather, lol.
 
#16 ·
The first weatherman I recall was Tex Antoine in the late 60's on Channel 7 Eyewitness News out of NYC. He drew pictures and really explained the weather. He was also pretty "colorful" shall we say, and that led to Storm Field taking over in I think the mid/late 70's. Strictly as to the broadcast, Tex made watching the weather fun as a kid. Storm was more the pretty boy.

The storm was pretty much as advertised. High winds, ton of rain. Branches and leaves everywhere. Lost power for a couple hours. But no major damage.
 
#17 ·
Wally2q. You nailed it. Have watched this theater evolve for over 60 years now.

Storms have come and gone since before man was on earth. Now, the weather services have to sell advertising time on whatever media they are on. First you hear of some 'bomb' this or that, but no details, rather "tune in at 6". That is when the ad payoffs occurs.

Weather men? My favorite was Sonny Elliott in Detroit, a B17 crewman, shot down and a POW in WWII. What a character, worked wonders with a green chalk board, a big chunk of chalk that he often dropped, and about 5 jokes in each weather report. He was on in the regular weather report slot, and never in between, you had to catch the weather or wait for the next regular news and weather report.

OMG!!! How on earth ever did we survive???!!!!
 
#25 ·
#18 ·
Had some towns south of mine about 30 miles away get 90 mph winds last night--many trees downed,over 200,000 with no power across MA right now..

Sounded like a 4 hour freight train going by at my house last night from about midnight to 4 am..rain came down sideways--here the winds peaked around 50 mph,but it sounded like the cyclone was right above my area those 4 hours,higher up in the atmosphere..

Quite a bit of damage was done all across MA,especially along the southeast coast and along the beaches of Duxbury and Marshfield...luckily my power stayed on all night,but this is the end of "leaf peeping" probably,seems every year just before the peak colors arrive,the trees get stripped of their leaves by heavy rain & high winds..

Some parts of the Birkshires got 4" of rain..my area got about an inch,and I'm lucky my roof didn't leak into the ceilings again..roofer who was supposed to fix my roof hasn't contacted me since I accepted his estimate for nearly 2 weeks,and time is running out,I'm beginning to get angry!..I knew he's "busy",but at least could let me know when he plans to get around to my house..
 
#19 ·
I used to do multi million dollar highway paving contracts. They always included a start date, an end date, and detailed provisions in case the dates were missed.

Certainly nothing like the work I get contracted around the house, but the concepts are the same. The price quote should have the details of what, where, and when, along with proof of insurance that covers me if there is a mishap.

Contractors have this stuff at their fingertips and should not be surprised when asked for it.

A contractor who doesn't, or can't immediately provide, or commit to these things is immediately disqualified.
 
#20 ·
Supposedly the company is "one of the best" in my area,has lots of glowing online reviews,and they have all the required insurance,etc--but it appears all the roofers around here are "very busy" and have plenty of newly constructed homes to put roofs on,and my 41 year old house comes last,seeing it will likely require some wood decking replaced,and this company also does chimney repair..

The weather has not been roofer friendly the past 2 weeks either,so I assume they are "behind" and trying to catch up..

Other "roofers" I have been referred to seem to be the fly by night crackhead types,who likely lack insurance and other required things,and I'm reluctant to take my chances with any of them,not knowing if they will take a deposit and vanish,or start the job,and take a month off before they might return to finish it,and do a crappy job..
I can only afford to do this once!.....many "scary" stories online under the "reviews" about most all of the roofers around here..


I was quoted $4000 to re-roof just the south facing side of the hip roof that is failing & leaking-(guy claims the other 3 sides of the hip roof have maybe 5+ more years left,and I'm not really in a position to have it all done now)--also have the top 3-4 courses of bricks removed & replaced and a new crown put on the chimney,plus clean all the gutters and re-attach them...they will put the synthetic underlayment and ice shield and replace any rotted wood...this guy was the only one willing to do only a partial re-roofing..he'll also clean up and dispose of all the old shingles and leave no nails lying around too..

I can afford that,and still be able to pay my property tax bill ($1200 for the last quarter of 2019) and the house insurance next month..
I'd try to get a loan and do the whole roof at once if I was sure I could pay it off,but I'm not,and I do not want to lose the house to a bank,or to back taxes..plus I'd like to keep some money in reserve for when anything else in the house decides to quit,and you know it will,being almost 50 years old..


None of the other quotes I got were in my budget--cheapest one was $6000 just to re-roof the whole thing ,with only some ice shield and tar paper underneath.no chimney work or gutter repair/cleaning either..others I got were in the $7000-$10,000 dollar range for just the roof only..since I may not end up living here as long as I'd hoped,I can only afford to do what is really needed at the moment..

My health is going downhill fast,and there is a 16 acre lot next to my property currently listed as "unbuildale wetland",but so was the 150 acres beside it ,now there are 100+ McMansions in that spot..

I see a new easement to the street has been added to the plot plan recently,also the owners name has changed,and I will not be surprised if the town grants a variance or zoning change,they are putting homes on every available lot formerly deemed "unbuildable" now that town sewers have been put on this street..

If I end up having 20 homes in my back yard,that may be the final straw,and my 42 years of living here may come to an end..also I'm sure the taxes will continue go up,possibly enough that I wont be able to afford to stay here--thus I'm looking only to keep the interior of the house from getting any more damage..whoever ends up with it when I'm gone can worry about fixing it "right"...I do not want to do a partial roof replacement,but you can't always do what you'd like when your not well off financially..
 
#21 · (Edited)
Our pressure dropped 25 millibars overnight, from 1005 down to 980 on our little Springfield barometer. We got a couple or more inches of rain and wild, gusting winds. No power outage for us but my sister-in-law is running the generator down Richmond (RI) way and thousands of others along coastal New England lost power due to tree damage.

Yes, they do have fun names for these conditions. MTF’s ToS forbids my printing my ‘fun’ names!

Update: we lost power at around 8:00 p.m. and National Grid estimates it will return by 2:00 a.m. The generator/interlock we had installed two weeks ago is now in use!
 

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#22 ·
Can't let the weatherp*** go just yet!!! We have a developing proto-hurricane in the Gulf right now. IF it develops more, it will be named Nestor. Currently off the Yucatan peninsula and heading NNE and may be over my house by early Saturday morning. The cone is ending up in North Carolina on Sunday afternoon.
 
#23 ·
Last night was pretty wild here on the north shore of Long Island. We had heavy rain, and a lot of strong wind. This morning WC included my town on a list with a recorded wind gust of 83 mph. With our house under a canopy of large oak trees I wasn't able to sleep, so I sat up until 2am listening to the scanner. Lots of tress across roads, and wires down with some transformer fires. It was very windy yet today. There were a few times that I looked up and wondered if I should be outside picking up limbs, and branches. The wind is still blowing some now.
 
#26 ·
Well, Tropical Storm Nestor didn't live up to the dire warnings. We did get some much needed rain as it has now rained twice since July. We had been in a moderate drought and I think this took us out of that. The grass is certainly greening up again and likely will need to mow next week.

Just have to say that this continual "crying WOLF" with any weather other than clear & sunny is getting real old. Way back on Tuesday, all the weather websites had the banners warning of the imminent destruction that Nestor would bring with high winds, torrents of rain, storm surge, flooding and any other description of fear. Weather is something that happens and can change several times in a day.
 
#29 ·
The best part of there job is no matter how wrong they are the don't have to go back and fix it.

Be safe up there.



On a lighter note. Over on another board this guy was talking about the weather. Instead of Polar Vortex he wrote Polar Kotex. It sure broke me up.

I know we have all been their and just didn't the words to describe it.
 
#31 ·


Why am I late to this party???

Every time I hear this bombogenesis nonsense, it screams fake news to me. Not that the storms aren't dangerous, but as mentioned above, this has become more about the reporters and ratings than the actual storms.

I can't watch "meteorologists" who hyperventilate when reporting the forecasts. If you take the time to look up the education of a lot of these folks, you'll see that many never actually studied the subject, they're journalism majors. Not that I have a problem with journalists, only those pretending to be scientists forecasting life and death weather events...

My (and probably most Rhode Islanders') favorite meteorologist was John Ghiorse. He was always serious, and didn't sensationalize the weather.

Anyway, we were fortunate during this past storm. Lots of rain and wind, but no local damage or power loss. As Robert mentioned, lots of other communities were not as fortunate.

I'm a bit worried about next weekend, I'm seeing high winds, low temps, and heavy rain in the forecast. Not sure what's supposed to be driving that yet...

Mike
 
#36 ·
Hey all-

Thought I would try to correct some misconceptions about weather forecasts and meteorology. Many on this form are conflating two distinct groups: broadcast meteorologists and National Weather Service (NWS) forecasters.

A disclaimer here: I am retired, have never been in the employ of the NWS or any other branch of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). I am not and never have been a forecaster. I am a consumer of several of the NWS forecast products.


I can't watch "meteorologists" who hyperventilate when reporting the forecasts. If you take the time to look up the education of a lot of these folks, you'll see that many never actually studied the subject, they're journalism majors. Not that I have a problem with journalists, only those pretending to be scientists forecasting life and death weather events...
Mike
Broadcast meteorologists are the men and women that announce the weather on the media. It it true that you need no formal training to be a broadcast meteorologist. Many have little physical science training of any kind, but there are also broadcast meteorologists with a BS or BA in meteorology, degrees that are often tailored to becoming media personalities. And there are a few out there- often retired military forecasters- that do have a clue.

Problem is, they are employed by entertainment companies, and the pressure to entertain or be fired (unless you are a beautiful woman). If you want to get weather info., entertainment media “news” programs are not the place to go.

By contrast, NWS forecasters (hardly) ever appear on television. They are busy producing actual weather forecasts from the ever-changing information streams that NWS provides: mainly numerical forecasts, but also a host of hourly surface observations, upper-air soundings, satellite imagery, radar data from around the world to name a few.

Many NWS forecasters have MS degrees, some even have Ph.Ds. A higher degree in meteorology or atmospheric science, and a number of folks with a bachelor’s degree in meteorology find their degrees are insufficient to get them through graduate programs. (NOTE, the terms “meteorology” and “atmospheric science” are more or less interchangeable”).

Probably the most common degree for incoming MS students is physics. While the BS meteorology major is studying Public Communications Skills, the aspiring BS physics major is studying his/her butt off learning Vector Calculus and Statistical Mechanics. And that just gets the BS Physics major a foot in the academic door so they can spend a couple more grueling years applying their physics skills to atmospheric problems


I heard we were in for some weather, as in bad, later today and through the night, so I was checking around the interweb for updates and found these terms describing what could occur in the Northeast part of the Country. Don't recall seeing these terms before. Anyhow, it would seem if the process of bombogenesis occurs, then you have a bomb cyclone. Which means, generally, pressure must drop 24 millibars (a unit of pressure) within 24 hours, plus other factors I guess.
But when they start the "sky is falling" gloom & doom forecasts when a storm "of biblical proportions" approaches,I tend to be skeptical,and have to switch it off,it gets my anxiety levels off the scale--then most of the time,it fizzles out and nothing "severe" happens..
I swear they sensationalize the forecasts to increase the sales of bread,milk,batteries,and other things,like generators & snow blowers,shovels,etc.....
So, who would you trust to give you the true skinny on the weather forecasts? It should be noted that the NWS forecasters DO write forecasts. Plain text forecasts, nothing fancy, to be understood by “everyman” for every zone in the US. They tend to be terse and dry:

Saturday Night

Snow likely before 10pm. Cloudy, with a low around 33. East wind 15 to 25 mph, with gusts as high as 40 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%
.

Not very exciting is it?

Then the broadcast meteorologist gets hold of it and “prettifies” it.
Better enjoy that clear weather while you can, because the clouds will move in soon, bringing a 60% chance of snow to many places in the area. and you better hang on to your hats, because the
25 mph winds that are haunting us now will increase to 40 mph or even greater early tomorrow morning.

Several errors and exaggerations have been inserted into the “beautification” process, (can you find them?) but it is more sexy. The two forecasts say kind of the same thing, but not really

I stick with the NWS forecasts. They vary in accuracy- forecasting is a tough sport- but the closer to the horse’s mouth the better.

Miscellanea
The terms have previously been used among meteorologists. As with any technical field, there is scientific jargon associated.
I'd never heard of a "Polar Vortex" until a couple/few years ago.
You think they didn't exist before?...
Well, Tropical Storm Nestor didn't live up to the dire warnings. We did get some much needed rain as it has now rained twice since July. We had been in a moderate drought and I think this took us out of that. The grass is certainly greening up again and likely will need to mow next week.

Just have to say that this continual "crying WOLF" with any weather other than clear & sunny is getting real old. Way back on Tuesday, all the weather websites had the banners warning of the imminent destruction that Nestor would bring with high winds, torrents of rain, storm surge, flooding and any other description of fear. Weather is something that happens and can change several times in a day.
 
#33 ·
Now that's the Don we know and love!!!

Can't say I agree with your choice, she drives me nuts with the yelling and freaking out. Plus, 9 times out of 10, you have to see Cantore too...

Mike
 
#34 ·
The weather has become like the news. It is all written and presented to create fear, terror and panic. It is amazing that we all haven't tucked our heads between our knees and kissed our butts goodbye already.
 
#35 ·
I fall in love with many of the female weather gals here on the Boston & RI channels when they come on,it is hard to focus on the forecast when you have a beautiful woman blocking most of the weather map with her body,and I can list at least a dozen that are VERY attractive !...it appears being good looking is mandatory to be hired as a TV weather "person"...
But when they start the "sky is falling" gloom & doom forecasts when a storm "of biblical proportions" approaches,I tend to be skeptical,and have to switch it off,it gets my anxiety levels off the scale--then most of the time,it fizzles out and nothing "severe" happens..
I swear they sensationalize the forecasts to increase the sales of bread,milk,batteries,and other things,like generators & snow blowers,shovels,etc.....they work hand in hand with the supermarkets and big box stores.
 
#38 ·
Wouldn't know of either broadcast or cable TV weather programs as I don't own or have a TV or smartphone nor have I seen any for quite a few years now. I get all my weather and other news from numerous websites online. No, I don't do any TV programming, at all. Prefer text based websites as the videos are more for entertaining the masses.
National Weather Service is simply OK. They really don't have some of the information I want or it is not very easy to find.
 
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