Bomb Cyclone

A powerful winter storm hit the US eastern coast last month and specifically referred to as a "bomb cyclone". This term is an extension of "weather bomb", and is more like a kind of winter hurricane resulting from a process called explosive cyclogenesis, or bombogenesis, which occurs when a mid-latitude cyclone intensifies from the collision of cold, dry air with warm, moist, ocean air. This causes a rapid, bomb-like drop in atmospheric pressure, suddenly generating violent weather, hence the "bomb". Is it the latest bit of meteorological bombast , like polar vortex, snowmageddon, and thundersnow? Or media-generated hyperbole? Maybe not. The term can be found in technical papers as early as the 1980s and "weather bomb" is even older, this phrase for a "rapidly developing severe storm" was used in 1948, the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) says.