Winter's next wallop includes a bomb cyclone and Florida freezing

"Intensely cold air is scouring the central and eastern U.S. again and will send temperatures plummeting all the way to the tip of Florida. Along with this new Arctic incursion, a major bomb cyclone storm is strengthening off the coast of the Carolinas, potentially bringing rare blizzard conditions to the region. Some areas haven't seen this amount of accumulating snow in over 30 years, wrote the National Weather Service's office in Wilmington, N.C., on Facebook."

"The latest Arctic blast on top of already cold conditions means subzero Fahrenheit temperatures (conditions below 18 degrees Celsius) are expected across the Midwest and Ohio Valley and much colder than usual weather is anticipated across the eastern half of the country. And the cold is plunging unusually far south, with Florida is facing the coldest low temperatures it has seen in more than a decade, with even Orlando and Daytona Beach expected to see low temperatures in the 20s F (negative single degrees C)."

"Bomb cyclones have had that name since 1980, when meteorologists Fred Sanders and John Gyakum, both then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coined the term bombogenesis to describe how these storms rapidly lower in pressureby at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. The scientists likened the process to the detonation of a bomb, although bomb cyclones are, in a sense, exploding inward. Their dramatic name ensures bomb cyclones always get a lot of media coverage, but they really aren't all that rare."

An intense Arctic air mass will drive temperatures sharply downward across the central and eastern United States, reaching the southern tip of Florida. A major bomb cyclone strengthening off the Carolina coast may produce rare blizzard conditions and significant coastal impacts, with some locations seeing their heaviest accumulating snow in over 30 years. Subzero Fahrenheit readings are forecast across the Midwest and Ohio Valley, and far colder-than-normal weather is expected across the eastern half of the country. Florida faces its coldest lows in more than a decade, with Orlando and Daytona Beach potentially dropping into the 20s F. Strong winds from the developing bomb cyclone could create dangerously low wind chills along the East Coast and deep into the South.

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