Weather Bomb!

This satellite image depicts the weather bomb over our country.  Its impact is felt most heavily in eastern Canada while the western provinces have had snow and below normal temperatures.  See http://www.accuweather.com/canada-maps-satellite.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&site=canm&type=ir&anim=1&large=0 for real time tracking of this weather system.

I heard this weather term for the first time, that I recall, this morning as I was watching the local weather forecast.  On the screen was a satellite picture much like the one above and viewers were introduced to the system as a term in meteorology known as a weather bomb!  A what? you say and I thought. 

Canada is in the grips of a winter weather system otherwise being called a "weather bomb".  Eastern Canada, especially the Great Lakes area, is more heavily affected.  The western provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, and to an extent British Columbia are feeling the affects of this system with snow and temperatures considerably lower than the norms for this time of year.

Nor'easters/cyclones/weather bombs
An Extratropical cyclone, a kind of cyclone, (also known as "cyclones", "European windstorms", "nor'easters", and "mid-latitude cyclones")  is a large weather area of low pressure with rain and wind and clouds. It isn't similar to tropical cyclones or low-pressure weather areas from cold polar places. They are several masses of cold and warm fronts which produce rain, heavy wind, and sometimes hail and tornadoes.  Sometimes Extratropical cyclones derive from weak tropical cyclones that don't die when they move over cold water. At times, these weather areas can become even stronger than previous as they become Extratropical cyclones. When derived from tropical cyclones, they can still have an eye (a spot in the middle of a tropical cyclone that is calmer with less wind, cloud, or rain). European windstorms at times are made when wind from the northwestern part of the Atlantic take them east and north towards Europe.  Northeastern North America is often hit with nor'easters, typically when it is cold, and generally in late fall. Wind from western Atlantic shifts them north. They strengthen, delivering snow on the areas it envelopes. When a nor'easter drops in pressure and becomes more intense, by more than one millibar every hour, it is known as a weather bomb.

This explains the snow we received starting Sunday First Snow and the chilling temperatures! I am glad to see the weather bomb is lifting, at least here.  This afternoon the clouds broke and the sun shone, though it did little to warm anything.  -6 Celsius.  In October.  Now that's a bomb!

 
Check the following links for more stories about the weather bomb:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/10/26/toronto-weather.html
http://news.sympatico.cbc.ca/local/on/weather_bomb_heads_for_southern_ontario/306651ab