Bomb Cyclone
Why in news : There is unprecedented bomb cyclone occurred in USA and Canada claiming more than 30 lives.
Bomb cyclone in U.S.A and Canada, the condition
More about the news :
- An intense blizzard (or snowstorm) is wreaking havoc across the United States and Canada, with more than 30 people confirmed dead in the US as of Monday, December 26.
- Four people died in Canada after a road accident on an icy path.
- At one of the most important periods for travel and tourism around the world, and especially in these two countries as families come together to celebrate the holiday season, life has been interrupted.
- According to a report, the scope of the storm has been nearly “unprecedented”, stretching from the Great Lakes near Canada to the Rio Grande along the border with Mexico.
- The National Weather Service has said that about 60% of the US population faced some sort of winter weather advisory or warning, and temperatures plummeted drastically below normal in major areas of the country.
- NASA’ Earth Observatory had shown on December 22 that “a blast of Arctic air will plunge south and help trigger a powerful blizzard that will churn through the central and eastern US.”
- As the temperature has continued dipping, many houses are without heat and lights. In New York, about 34,000 households were still without power.
- Migrants from Mexico and Central America attempting to reach the United States are also facing issues as a result, with authorities struggling to provide them with shelter.
What is a Bomb Cyclone :
- A bomb cyclone is simply a storm that intensifies very rapidly.
- Bomb cyclones form when air near Earth’s surface rises quickly in the atmosphere.
- This quickly increases the pressure difference, or gradient, between the two air masses, therefore making the winds stronger.
- In bomb cyclone the pressure drops rapidly in the low-pressure mass — by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.
- This process of rapid intensification has an even more ferocious-sounding name: bombogenesis.
- The area where the two air masses meet moves northward and eastward, conditions for bombogenesis should continue moving as well.
- All bomb cyclones are not hurricanes, but sometimes, they can take on characteristics that make them look an awful lot like hurricanes, with very strong winds, heavy precipitation and well-defined eye-like features in the middle.
Difference between Bomb cyclone and 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.
Hurricane
- In contrast, bomb cyclones don’t need ocean waters in order to form. While they sometimes arise over the ocean, they can also appear over land — as was the case with the cyclone that hit the northern Plains in March 2019.
Syllabus : Prelims + Mains; GS1 – Issues related to climate and Geography
