Global climate change. We're going to see more of this kind of extreme weather, I think.

Sun is out here in KCMO. Kind of windy but not too bad.

wind is blowing like hell, snow piling up, viability about 1/2 block. I stocked up on items to make fajitas. I'm set for beer and tequila.

do we have to add MORE general fear by using the word "bomb"? I get a sense from local weather reporting that over-doing the forecast is becoming the norm. Sometimes appropriate, but, not always. Seems like it works 2 ways for the tv station....keep scared eyes on the news (and ads), and get people to over do it at the store, out of fear of being in lock-down. Aren't we generally scared enough?

Bombogenesis, a popular term used by meteorologists, occurs when a midlatitude cyclone rapidly intensifies, dropping at least 24 millibars over 24 hours. A millibar measures atmospheric pressure. This can happen when a cold air mass collides with a warm air mass, such as air over warm ocean waters. The formation of this rapidly strengthening weather system is a process called bombogenesis, which creates what is known as a bomb cyclone
https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/bombogenesis.html

The point is the same.

That's what it's called by meteorologists. Since this happens a lot in Southern New England we often hear that a storm will "Bomb Out" which means a wicked Nor'easter is about to hit.

My parents get scared of the over done weather reports. Just wondering why THAT particular parlance needs to be part of the shtick.

The key takeaway is the storm is going to dramatically deepen the low pressure, and since winds are powered by the difference from high to low, it means very powerful winds. Powered by warm spring air to the South and arctic air to the North the system will also drop a lot of snow and the high winds will create blizzard conditions. It's not hype - this storm will paralyze the roads.

Since you seem to be an extreme expert in the field, why do they run the weather stuff so scary? You know what I mean? It's over done almost every day. It wasn't always this way. I think it's bc of what I expressed in the very first post about all this. They deny global warming, but, be afraid...be very afraid.
I certainly understand legitimate warnings but,.....come on.

This was done on purpose because people weren't getting the message on dangerous weather and were dying or needing rescue too often. People got used to standard warnings and ignored them for major events. In some instances, the weather someplace is more severe. If you watch local weather is pretty blah except when it is not.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tornado-warnings/weather-service-to-test-more-graphic-tornado-warnings-idUSBRE8300JX20120402

https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bmjpm8/its-ok-to-be-scared-of-the-snow

and they're doing a report from Denver Airport, and it's astonishing how many people are there. I recall all too well when I worked at DCA, that people would think we could perform magic and suddenly be able to fly an airplane from a closed airport. There's a report of a couple with a newborn baby and no formula. I cannot imagine traveling without a more than adequate supply of formula for your baby. Oh, and excess diapers also.

with a 2 year old and 2 month old for 12 hours on their way to Hawaii from Baltimore. I couldn't imagine that!

I can't imagine traveling with a newborn. I know people do it. One of mine was 4 months old the first time he flew with us, but that was the youngest I coped with when traveling with infants.

Ok, so when I was a mother of babies I happened to be a nursing mom, so formula was never an issue. Although diapers would have been. I'm honestly horrified that parents travelling with babies don't figure out what they need.

Heck, I was very much into using cloth diapers, and on one cross country trip when my youngest was still in diapers, I brought plenty of cloth diapers with me and used them. And washed them. I am not even remotely suggesting anyone else should do the same thing, but my underlying point is that you plan for what your baby needs. Be it formula or diapers or whatever.

no problem from that Chinese hoax, right MAGAts?

with blizzards in the north especially the Dakotas and Minnesota and tornadoes in the south.
I had a tornado chasing me down the highway during one of these outbreaks about 25 years ago.

Back in the 70s ('74 I think) we had nigh on 20 inches of snow in early April during one of these with some unreal winds.
Climate change may be adding some punch to this thing, but storms like this are not all that unusual this time of year. With whopping winds and some real violence as the warmer air pushes to replace the colder air of winter.

One of the things I learned very quickly (along with if you live in the mountains you will be burned out by wildfires at some point) was that the heaviest snowstorms came in March or April. I didn't live there very long (moved to Golden, CO in November 1987, to Boulder in the spring of 1988 -- can't remember exactly when -- and thence to Kansas in July, 1990) and so I only witnessed a couple of seasons there.

What I loved best about living there was that it might snow and drop many inches of snow on the ground, but within 24 hours it would warm up to 60 degrees and melt all the snow. Heck, because the snow never lasted more than 24 hours I didn't think it was worth buying a sled for my kids to use. I mean, really, if it was all going to be gone that soon why bother?