Important Facts For Prelims
Bomb Cyclone
- 01 Feb 2022
- 2 min read
For Prelims: Bomb cyclone, Hurricanes, cyclones, typhoons.
For Mains: Cyclones and its formation, Important Geophysical phenomena.
Why in News?
Recently, ‘Bomb cyclone’ hits eastern US, which triggers transport chaos, outages.
What is a Bomb Cyclone?
- About:
- A bomb cyclone is a large, intense midlatitude storm that has low pressure at its center, weather fronts and an array of associated weather, from blizzards to severe thunderstorms to heavy precipitation.
- Bomb cyclones put forecasters on high alert, because they can produce significant harmful impacts.
- Reasons for the Formation:
- This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters. The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis.
- It occurs when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours.
- A millibar measures atmospheric pressure.
How does a Bomb Cyclone differ from a Hurricane?
- Hurricanes tend to form in tropical areas and are powered by warm seas. For this reason, they’re most common in summer or early fall, when seawater is warmest.
- Bomb cyclones generally occur during colder months because cyclones occur due to cold and warm air meeting. During the summer, there’s generally not much cold air across the atmosphere; this means a bomb cyclone is much less likely to occur.
- Hurricanes form in tropical waters, while bomb cyclones form over the northwestern Atlantic, northwestern Pacific and sometimes the Mediterranean Sea.
