Midwest bomb cyclone

[banderson7474]

To any of those that are affected, I hope all is okay. I have a cpl of army friends that live in Nebraska and Iowa and from the sounds of it, it could have gotten a lot worse but there is still a lot of flooding and such.

 

[johnmeyer]

I too hope everyone is riding out the storms, but I do get annoyed at our national press who constantly come up with new ways to make bad situations sound even worse. Where the heck did "bomb" cyclone come from? That sure wasn't around fifty years ago.

I still remember my father showing me his new weather radio back in the 1970s, when I think this all started. It was summer in the Midwest. The forecaster's voice started with the same refrain I'd heard all my life, "chance of afternoon or evening thunderstorms." However, it then went on with this brand new (at the time) fear-mongering: "If you hear a thunderstorm, seek immediate shelter. Do not stand under a tree. Lightning kills hundreds of people every year. If all else fails, grab your ankles, put your head between your legs, and kiss your ass goodbye."

OK, the last part wasn't there, but the rest was. All perspective was gone, and the assumption that maybe we had all figured this out ourselves, or had been told by someone along the way, was completely dropped. THEY had to remind us. We must be made afraid.

And then of course there is the wind chill factor. No one reports temperatures any more because when it is 20º F outside, that doesn't sound that terrible, but when you say it is a -5º wind chill, everyone gets much more excited, which is the point, I guess.

Humbug.

 

[banderson7474]

Yea I never heard of polar vortex until a few years ago.

On a somewhat related note, I live in Lee county where the tornadoes hit bama. I was lucky that it went right by me but it got real when our phones went off and it said seek shelter immediately.

 

[indaswamp]

Here ya go John...
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bombogenesis.html

 

[Fueling Around]

That last round was an odd event. Where I live we got a little rain and snow. Just a few miles east or west and they got hit hard. Major road closures continue today either due to snow drifts or ice, and now I see flooding in the central to lower part of Minnesota.

The previous storms were worse as many roofs have collapsed from the snow load.
Monday, a truss failed in my bosses' shop. Luckily, It didn't collapse but it was a major scramble getting 3 tractors and the row crop planter out. 2 days of raking and shoveling snow to save from collapse. My elbows are still aching.