Look for the T-shirts — out by the end of the week. "I SURVIVED THE BOMB CYCLONE OF 2021!"
Bomb Cyclones (I looked it up) are big-ass, monster rain storms. Wind gusts up to 100 km/h (62 miles per hour.) Torrents not seen since Noah built the ark. This was what forecasters predicted would hit us on Vancouver Island this weekend. One frazzled-looking weather guy on TV pleaded that we PLEASE heed warnings because he had never seen a storm this record-breaking, this massive, this fierce, this destructive, EVER, in the history of all storms of all time. And it was about to clobber our coast!
Scientists tracked a doozy of a storm churning out there in the Pacific. It wreaked havoc along California, Oregon, and Washington coastlines. Now, as it is in past tense, we learned that Sunday's storm spawned the deepest low pressure system ever recorded. But by the time it got to our house, the bomb had mostly fizzled out. My weather app never recorded a gust above 30 km/h. It was windy, sure, but we never had to hang on to lampposts to keep from blowing away.
Last week we experienced an Atmospheric River. For this one, imagine Niagara Falls cascading from the sky.
Weather has become so dramatic — hasn't it? (Thanks, Climate Change!) So have the descriptors we've heard in the last couple of years: Arctic Vortex. Heat Dome. Firenado. As if tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, floods, ice storms, and thunder snow weren't alarming enough. Now we have even more extreme words to add to our weather vocabulary — terrifying us all!
These days, TV weather reporters shout: 14 MILLION PEOPLE IN ITS PATH!!!!!! Special Weather Statements on social media scream: IT'S HEADED YOUR WAY! HEAD FOR THE HILLS!!!! Action verbs thunder: "SLAM! PUMMEL! THRASH!" Adjectives get personal: "SAVAGE! VICIOUS!"
Storms devastate communities and upend people's lives. Dangerous weather is not only hazardous, but can be life-threatening. I, for one, take warnings very seriously. If a tornado siren goes off, you can find me in the basement, under a table, wearing a hard hat. But part of me wonders if we might dial down the rhetoric just a touch. Please! Just for my blood pressure's sake!
I read this about the Bomb Cyclone:
"The Weather Channel defines this condition as, 'having undergone bombogenesis or "bombing-out." In short, it happens when a low pressure system drops rapidly, resulting in a "bomb"-like explosion of winter weather madness. It could cause some intense conditions, including snow, wind, and ice. It might sound funny, but it's nothing to joke about."
The word, "bombogenesis" is a scientific term for that low pressure swirl over the ocean that was about to explode over us on Sunday. But that word didn't make headlines. What did? Over and over and over, it was, "BOMB CYCLONE — About to Drop on Vancouver Island!!!" I would have preferred a more dispassionate, "A bombogenesis is about to occur over coastal areas, please take precautions." I might not have hit level 10 panic. But, BOMB CYCLONE! Egad! Blown to Kingdom Come!
Some weather terms are not scientific at all. During a ferocious, eastern snow storm in 2010, the Washington Post asked readers to vote on a name for it. "Snowmageddon" was the winner. After all, isn't a big blizzard way more fearsome (and sexy) when it comes with a connotation of doom?
Fortunately, we never have to worry about a "Haboob" happening around here. That's what you call an intense sand storm in a dry, dusty area. And thank goodness for that! I couldn't take another extreme weather event. My nerves already had their own bombogenesis this weekend! I'm recovering, thanks, and looking forward to getting my T-shirt.
References:
"11 Weird Weather Terms That Honestly Don't Even Sound Real, Like 'Haboob'", bluster.com
weather.com/science/weather-explainers/what-is-bombogenesis-weather-bomb
