A Christmas blizzard is rising this week to finally become a bomb cyclone, creating paralyzing conditions for travelers heading for the holidays.
According to Fox Weather, the blizzard will move across the Midwest and Great Lakes this week before becoming a bomb cyclone. Meteorologists use the term bombogenesis to refer to a rapidly intensifying area of low pressure.
A woman walks across Broadway Avenue as snow continues to fall during a blizzard in Bismarck, ND on Thursday, November 10, 2022. The first winter storm of the season to take off from the Rocky Mountains is dumping its energy primarily in North Dakota . ()
(Mike McCleary/The Bismarck Tribune via AP)
The central pressure of the system must drop by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours to qualify under bombogenesis, but what happens is that the pressure drop intensifies the power of the storm.
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It is a fusion of two words: bomb and cyclogenesis. Bomb refers to explosive development, and all storms are considered cyclones, while genesis describes the beginning or creation.
As the storm moves toward the East Coast, it will usher in very cold temperatures that will freeze the heavy rains that fall just before the temperature drops across the Plains, Midwest, and East.
Winter Weather Alerts in the Midwest and Plains through Thursday morning
(Credit: Fox News)
Subzero temperatures could reach as far as Florida, with parts of the state experiencing their coldest temperatures in 30 years.
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Snow is also expected to be a factor with the storm across a substantial part of the US.
A blizzard warning has been issued for parts of southwestern Minnesota and could expand to additional areas on Wednesday or Thursday.
Along with the Blizzard Warning, Winter Weather Advisories, Winter Storm Watches, and Winter Storm Warnings have been issued from Denver, Colorado to Buffalo, New York.
Brianna Brooks, owner of Scott Brooks Towing in Townshend, Vt., connects a vehicle to a flatbed truck at the scene of a three-vehicle crash during a snow storm on Friday, December 16, 2022.
((Kristopher Radder/The Brattleboro Reformer via AP))
Fox Weather expects the highest snowfall totals to occur in the western Great Lakes region, with areas such as Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, Western Lower Michigan and northern Wisconsin with more than a foot of snow accumulation.
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Possible light area snow accumulations from northern Oklahoma and into parts of Tennessee.
The storm is expected to intensify Thursday with snow and rain changing to heavy snow with strong winds.
Temperatures will drop by around 40 degrees in less than six hours, causing rain to turn to snow and flash frosts, forming black ice on the roads.
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In the eastern part of the US, a wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain will begin to fall Thursday morning before temperatures rise and turn to rain. Heavy snow is expected to fall in Western New York on Friday as winds pick up to 40-80 mph and temperatures plummet to minus 20 degrees.
