Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD: The extremely intensifying cold weather hitting North America amid the Christmas holidays is due to a phenomenon called a “bomb cyclone”.
The US National Weather Service reported that “once in a generation sort of event” has the power to turn deadly and this one is already breaking cold-weather records, with temperatures going down to minus 53 degrees Celsius, minus 38, and minus 13 in western Canada, Minnesota and Dallas respectively.
A bomb cyclone, or bombogenesis, is a rapidly intensifying storm that happens when air pressure drops 20 millibars or more within 24 hours.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that most of the time it occurs when hot-air mass collides with a cold one and now air from the Arctic plowed into tropical air from the Gulf of Mexico, making a depression bringing rain and snow.
According to meteorologist Yann Amice of analysts Weather’n’co, it happens amid the unexpected storm where the pressure dropped quickly to 40 millibars in 24 hours,
The storm has flashed a “polar vortex plunge” where a particularly cold airframe from the Arctic heads south toward the lower, warmer latitudes.
Severe Snowstorm
As a result, a high drop occurs in temperatures, for example in Denver the temperatures dropped 33 degrees Celsius in about seven hours.
Combined with blizzards and continuous snow, the wind chill in the area like the Great Plains can make it feel like about minus 55 degrees.
Meanwhile, the US National Weather Service warned that such a cold situation can lead to frostbite on bare skin within a matter of minutes, hypothermia, and even death if visible in these conditions for too long.
In such a situation it is unsafe to travel
The situation is likely to prevail over the weekend in the Great Plains and Midwest with winds that could move north towards Quebec, possibly bringing strong winds and more snow heading to the northeastern US, which might not be so severely affected.
