Bombcyclone — “a bad storm with good branding”

” The Bomb Cyclone isn’t a winter hurricane — just a bad storm with good branding” — Vox

A “Bombcyclone” off the East Coast of the USA is verging on, or has broken a record for the fastest drops in pressure. It’s now at 965mb. It’s not a bomb, nor a cyclone, just a common winter storm. Though this one is a bad one which has already dumped snow on Florida– “most snow in three decades”.  The hastag #BombCyclone is exploding.

Also known as a Blizzard, the National Weather Service forecasting winds as high as 70 miles per hour (113 km per hour), and more than 3,300 flights have been cancelled. — Reuters

BombCyclone, NE USA, Jan 4th. Satellite Photo.

BombCyclone, NE USA, Jan 4th.

Record breaking?

Rarely do you get to see such perfection w/ the structure of a winter storm. Running out of adjectives for this one. Our blizzard has dropped 54 mb’s in 24 hours, making it not only a “meteorological bomb,” but one of the fastest stengthening winter storms in modern history. — @WeatherOptics

Roy Spencer explains the Bomb term:

 The term “bomb” was coined by meteorologist Fred Sanders in 1980 to refer to a non-tropical low pressure area that intensifies at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. They happen every year, and are usually centered offshore in the winter where cold continental air masses meet warm oceanic air masses, providing maximum energy to the intensification process.

Bombcyclones are more common than real cyclones, @RyanMaue:

Globally, there are ~130ish rapidly developing extratropical cyclones each year. Not exactly fair to compare to tropical cyclones (80-90 tropical storms annually) b/c there are definitely way more run-of-the-mill non-explosive “bomb” cyclones

Ryan Maue compares this storm to past records:

Most rapidly deepening extratropical cyclone was ERICA IOP4 (Jan 4, 1989) & flown into by recon during field experiment. 52 mb/24h at 40°N

A real cyclone is spinning off Madagasgar. AVA-18.  Best wishes to people and animals caught in either.

 

Where a snow-laden blizzard has blown
As its millibars drop like a stone,
Such a powerful storm,
Being not quite the norm,
Is by some, called a bombcyclone,

— Ruairi

8.4 out of 10 based on 67 ratings

96 comments to Bombcyclone — “a bad storm with good branding”

  • #
    Ted O’Brien.

    I commented in The Oz that I was sick of this journalistic terrorism, and that “they” (not The Oz) should pick up their bomb and take it to Blazes.
    They modded it out. I’ll try it on my mates here.

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      I heard the phrase yesterday.

      My response was, “Who dropped it, or threw it, or planted it? When is Army Bomb Disposal Unit due to arrive?”

      Language only has utility, for as long as the meaning of words can be agreed. That is why we have dictionaries.

      The people who make up these cutesy phrases think they are being clever. I guess they are, if compared against complete and utter morons.

      As you might guess, I am not impressed.

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      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        The people who make up these cutesy phrases think they are being clever. I guess they are, if compared against complete and utter morons.

        +1,000 Thumbs, and is now in the running for quote of the century.

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      • #

        Misappropriating words while retaining the original meaning is the bread and butter of climate alarmism. Other examples are:

        sensitivity -> Bode defines this as a dimensionless ratio between the fractional change in gain per fractional change in some components value. A climate sensitivity with dimensions (degrees per W/m^2) is meaningless and is more properly referred to as meaningless representation of the gain.

        feedback -> Bode defines this as the fraction of output added to the input, where the input and output must be in units that are linearly interchangeable with each other. You can’t add a change in temperature to a change in forcing without first converting the temperature back into W/m^2.

        anomaly -> Anomaly analysis is generally used to identify anomalous data so that it can be discarded and is not at all suitable for identifying suspected and/or imagined trends.

        forcing -> Bode defines this as the input to the system, i.e. the Sun and nothing but the Sun. GHG forcing is completely meaningless.

        unprecedented -> This means something that has never happened before and there is absolutely nothing we can observe about the climate and the weather that hasn’t occurred before and/or that will occur again.

        climate -> This is not the weather.

        weather -> This is not the climate.

        And of course there are the prejudicial terms used to refer to those who are skeptical of the IPCC’s ‘consensus science and conclusions’ which are based on conformance to a political narrative, rather than conformance to the scientific method.

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        • #
          Manfred

          The sequestration of idiom and language to further a narrative is as well known as it is utilised, Albeit macht Frei, being a case in point, though that fooled very few. The UN has a relentless penchant for it. ‘Civil’, ‘Climate change’, Divestment have all been redefined in UN speak. It ALWAYS pays to check the UN defined meaning. It has nothing to do with the idiomatic or colloquial use of English. Most of the MSM don’t know that, which is one of many reasons why they are useful idiots.

          The case of ‘bombcyclone‘ is a particularly specious eye rolling example, conveying misleading importance on some bad winter weather. It was a given that it had to feature here. We all know it seamlessly segues from well worn phrases like ‘weather bomb’. It also serves to show that eventually ‘bomb’ is doomed by habituation to emotive extinction, and overused to exhaustion. The military will preferentially use the word ‘device’ instead, as in a ‘thermonuclear device’, or ‘devastating device’, for it is only a question of time before the spin-meisters of pornographic weather resort to MOAB weather events (Mother of All Bombs), which may annoy the military only slightly because they don’t use the word ‘bomb’ to formally describe The Mother, referring to it as The GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast.

          We all recognise that the catastrophising narrative delivered by the MSM Leftists serves their wider endeavour to underscore the UN/UNEP/Davos/Paris/Papal eco-Marxist meme, sell advertising space and fulfil their self-appointed desire to manufacture news rather than simply report it. It jives with their overdeveloped sense of self-importance, which is as real as their news is fake. In reality it also serves to illustrate another crucial point. Were the traitorous Fourth Estate to stop acting as a Fifth Column, and follow the Canons of Journalism, the entire eco-Marxist Green ideological melange would quite literally evaporate into nothing … pffffhhh
          … and the future would be filled with greater hope and occupied by a prosperous, rational World, instead of vacuous news bombs of exploding hot air.

          130

          • #
            OrignalSteve

            When Leftists ( think, UN ) speak of “peace”, they mean the peace of the grave for all those who disagree with them.

            Heres what the UN considers Univarsal Human Rights for all humanity, as along as you agree iwth the occult anti-West Anti-Christian anti-Israel UN …..

            http://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/

            Article 29.

            (1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

            (2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.

            (3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.

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          • #
            Leonard Lane

            Nice rant, Man

            20

      • #
        jpm

        “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.” “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.” “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”
        ATTRIBUTION: LEWIS CARROLL (Charles L. Dodgson), Through the Looking-Glass, chapter 6, p. 205 (1934). First published in 1872.

        John

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      • #

        The people who make up these cutesy phrases think they are being clever. I guess they are, if compared against complete and utter morons.

        Don’t know about complete; but morons are the lowest of the three fundamental classes of sub-atomic particles, the two being much brighter bosons and fermions. 🙂

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      • #

        The people who make up these cutesy phrases think they are being clever. I guess they are, if compared against complete and utter morons.

        Blowback from 5.2.1Greg Cavanagh January 5, 2018 at 8:46 am

        “It’s fearmongering. It’s a journalist trait..A monger is a seller, especially of something specific like a fish monger or an iron monger.”
        Ah yes; a moronmongering of course! 🙂

        30

  • #
    Yonniestone

    Beside a decent storm the ‘Bombcyclone’ has caused an explosion of literary creativity, I’d rather accurate predictions than catchy creations thanks.

    30

    • #
      RobK

      I think the term “blizzard” is a good one. It worked perfectly well and has historical familiarity, i guess that’s it’s percieved weakness.

      60

  • #
    TdeF

    We saw this in the Far North Queensland storm two years ago, upgraded to a Category 5 for no reason and suddenly downgraded the next day. In a previous public statement, the BOM employee responsible saw it as his job to make the weather more exciting, but the cost in evacuations and disruption was utterly unnecessary.

    This continual demonization of the weather then flows into the Climate Change story, supporting so many opportunists and alarmists. Ultimately the media will blame someone for the weather.

    In a more religious time before cars and planes when people felt that the weather was natural, part of life, the simple question in France was “what’s he done today?”. Now it is “what have we done today?” Blame, costs and taxes will follow inevitably, feeding the giant money hungry bureaucracy which supports the Green Industrial machine.

    There is no weather bomb. It’s just the weather. Not the Climate.

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  • #

    The climate scam is beginning to unravel ie world+dog is becoming sceptical, so new fears must be raised.

    150

    • #
      Dave in the States

      Exactly. They are hoping that this storm will have the same effect in terms of propaganda as “super storm sandy” did back in 2012.

      100

      • #
        OrignalSteve

        We could always ask them which wire they need to cut first – the red or the green one, to diffuse the “bomb”….

        40

  • #
    John F. Hultquist

    I’ll guess that if meteorologist Fred Sanders knew what he wrought by using the term “bomb”, he would have wrought something else.

    I’m thinking of suggestions; got nothing.

    Great image. Note snow on the SE Coastal plain.

    50

    • #

      wrought rôt/
      ——verb 1. archaic past and past participle of work.
      -adjective 1. (of metals) beaten out or shaped by hammering.

      Has your meteorologist Fred Sander done any ‘work’ ever?

      30

      • #
        Rereke Whakaaro

        Wrought also applies to a malleable form iron with a low carbon content.

        20

      • #
        John F. Hultquist

        King James Bible
        Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!

        Numbers 23:23

        30

    • #
      Alfred

      Journalists and weathermen who use such terms should be labelled “climate terrorists” because that is what they are.

      Crying wolf every time there is a bit of bad weather is a sure way to get people to ignore a genuine warning when it does come.

      70

      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        It’s fearmongering. It’s a journalist trait.
        https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/monger

        A monger is a seller, especially of something specific like a fish monger or an iron monger.

        You can use the noun monger as a word on its own, although it frequently shows up as a suffix, in words like cheesemonger. Monger can also be used as a verb meaning “to sell or peddle.” In both cases, the word is a bit old fashioned, used more often these days to describe a person who promotes something hurtful, as in warmonger. The Old English root word is mangere, “merchant or broker,” from the Latin mango, “dealer or trader.”

        70

      • #
        OrignalSteve

        Actually it is alittle like irresponsibly crying “fire” in a crowded theatre when there is no fire….

        Guaranteed if you or I did it, you’d go down for it….and yet…..

        20

  • #
    Tdef

    In Melbourne the BOM predict 41C for one day. The media are turning this into a disaster scenario. Factories will close! It’s a Saturday?
    Anyway I remember when heat waves lasted a week or two. Now a single hot day is a disaster?
    Weeks in Perth or Adelaide at 37C and not a cloud but one day in Melbourne is an angry summer?
    The weather (reporting) is out of control.

    252

    • #

      It’s being portrayed as if Australia and Australians have never before experienced high Summer temperatures. The news broadcasts are telling people how to cope. From where have all of these Australians, who have never experienced high temperatures, suddenly appeared?

      150

      • #
        OrignalSteve

        I blame smartphones – the rotten things keep people glued to them so their sense of perspective is only that small screen, not the wider view of the world.

        It would be great if the mobile networks shut down for a week, people would rediscover each other….20 somethings would be in rehab for months….

        40

    • #
      Dennis

      I can recall many Januaries when travelling and I have experienced 40C plus days on days of hot weather conditions.

      BoM and others have made themselves look stupid.

      111

    • #
      Annie

      We picniced in Dubai in May one year when the temp. was 46C. (Mad dogs and Englishmen…!). That was hot but dry, inland near Hatta. OH and I sought what shade we could by a poor little tree.
      One day of 37C here in North Central Vic is a bit hot but not in the least bit unusual. It has been much hotter before, like 2009. I am sick to de@th with all the hyping and id1otic terminology being used by met offices and the media.

      140

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      The weather (reporting) is out of control.

      It is witch-doctoring. They cast the bones, see how they fall, and tell you that you are likely to die, if you don’t respond to their demands for indulgences.

      The poor little media scribblers, who know no better, widen their eyes, clutch their pencils to their breasts, and burst into tears, because they believe that they must report everything they are told, or serious people, in serious jobs, with serious authority, will not like them any more.

      100

    • #
      RickWill

      “News” is a competitive market. A headline has to grab attention for the ever diminishing number of readers. Give the journos a break. They have to make a living too.

      40

    • #
      Russell Klier

      I thought you Australians were supposed to be tough… 41C is about 106F…A cool day in July for some parts of the US… I was on a business trip working [outside in the sun] in the suburbs of LA at 115 Degrees…… Death Valley California has an average July high of 116!
      https://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/death-valley/california/united-states/usca0286

      40

    • #
      Gazman

      The more they cry wolf, the quicker the sheeple will wake up and stop listening. They are actually building support for AGW scepticism.
      It is typical of the left. They always crap in their own nest.

      20

      • #
        Bushkid

        Unfortunately, far too many of the sheeple have no direct experience of real life outside their iPads, dumb phones and air-conditioning, so will belief everything they’re fed via their “devices”. If the ABC/SBS/JJJ etc tell them there’s an armageddon-force heat wave on the way (even if only for half a day), they’ll believe it. No amount of genuine factual evidence will ever convince them otherwise.

        20

    • #
      Greg

      The media have to talk it up as a n extreme heat wave.When the blackouts kick in due to our sabotaged energy supply they can justify the blackouts.”We told ya it was going to be extreme”!!

      30

  • #
    robert rosicka

    Notice on the satellite there is a lot of speckled cloud heading towards the south west coast Western Australia, does this mean a chilly blast for us in the south east of the country ?

    41

    • #
      Peter C

      Yes,
      it should come in late Saturday following the 41C heat wave in Melbourne.

      50

      • #
        Annie

        Heatwaves are only one day now I see. 😉

        40

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          I noticed on the ABC News today that this weekend is classified as an “extreme weather event”, that is, temps around 40C.

          I have never seen what we normally call “just damn hot” being morphed into a “heat bomb”. Its like PC OH&S dude has got off the leash and put safety bollards in your own bathroom…..fer cryin’ out loud….

          Im going to stick a “for sale” sign outside the local ABC office…any takers? Needs restumping at it leans hard to the left…..

          40

    • #
      Greg in NZ

      http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/347500/spiralling-storm-what-you-need-to-know

      Hey, we’ve got one of those La Bambas here, too! Thankfully, our green-speak media hasn’t resorted to blaming it on ‘you know what’ – yet.

      Jan 1, lunar perigee; Jan 2, full moon; Jan 3, perihelion (Earth closest to the sun for the year) and no sunspots for a week; Jan 4, jet streams go wobbly and cyclonic systems form in both hemispheres. 97% of alarmists believe that’s pure coincidence coz, like, y’know, it’s obviously all our fault – the political/social scientists have told us so.

      50

  • #
    Salome

    I’m not a scientist, so you might be able to help. Last night I had ABC News Radio on and they were playing an NPR interview with a spokesperson from the US weather bureau. The interviewer asked whether the Bomb Cyclone had anything to do with climate change. The interviewee responded with words to the following effect: ‘In contrast with summer hurricanes, we haven’t done the modelling on Bomb Cyclones yet, so we’re not sure.’ Now, to me, doing ‘the modelling’ conjures up visions of ‘we haven’t cooked the books yet’. I realise there are theoretical physics and fluid mechanics, and that these rely a lot on mathematical modelling, but somehow ‘we haven’t done the modelling yet’ sets of my bulldust detector. Can anyone enlighten me?

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    • #
      Kinky Keith

      Good question and I think you have answered it yourself.

      Any talk of modelling the weather is pseudo science and pretentious.

      Modelling can be a very useful tool to use when complex interactions of a system need to be assessed but in this case it is being used by someone who intends to just throw a few ideas around and use the label “modelling” more as an advertising gimmick.

      KK

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      • #
        toorightmate

        Never mind about doctoring models.
        Our BoM now classifies tropical rain depressions as Category ! cyclones.
        That’s not doctoring. That is straight out lying.

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    • #
      Sceptical Sam

      Salome,

      Did you not feel his pain in having to admit, by way of a very circuitous route, that he didn’t know?

      He was itching to say “yes, it’s a result of global warming” but some small part of what was once his integrity constrained him. His pain was palpable. He couldn’t bring himself to say “no”, so “don’t know” dressed up in climate speak was his escape door.

      This morning he’ll wake up castigating himself for not fully joining the comrades of the climate con.

      “Oh, if only I’d said it. If only I’d said it, I’d be one of them,” he’ll moan into his weak Americano.

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      • #
        Salome

        Didn’t detect any pain, but what I did detect this morning was the ABC attributing the BombCyclone to a kink in the gulf stream caused by–you guessed it–climachange!

        10

    • #
      Alfred

      “The interviewer asked whether the Bomb Cyclone had anything to do with climate change”

      This is called a “leading question” where the person asking and the person to whom the question is being addressed rehearsed in advance what was going to be asked and what the response was going to be.

      It is like a defence lawyer in court asking the accused some question the answer having been rehearsed in advance.

      40

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      A cyclone is a hurricane, going in the opposite direction, because it is in the other equatorial hemisphere.

      If they have modeled one, then they have modeled the other, because all it needs is a change in the sign for the direction of rotation.

      41

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        Rereke Whakaaro:
        But many AGW believers cannot comprehend a change of direction. It is all one way to them, or else.

        60

      • #
        Manfred

        And to think they only need to watch the toilet flush or the water run down the plug / bath hole to know which hemisphere they’re in. I am reliably informed that is why there seems a preference for dry composting contraptions and an avoidance of sinks and soap, together with the oxymoronic claim of ‘clean and green’.

        50

    • #
      RickWill

      If climate models were good at what they aim to do then such a blizzard would be something that they produced from any given starting conditions. However the weather models that are used as the basis of climate models will wander off on weird paths if not given precise starting conditions and narrow bands of operation.

      The weather models are capable of replicating the blizzard if they are given precise starting conditions and their forecasting window is no more than a few weeks. Beyond that they will drift into nonsense.

      Climate models are not solely analytical, which requires a sound basis is proven physics. There are many embedded empirical relationships and tunable parameters. Essentially they can produce whatever the operator wants them to produce. With all the tunable parameters they can be set up to hindcast quite accurately. That does not mean they have any ability to forecast. Climate modellers delude themselves that reliable hindcasting implies good forecasting.

      It is interesting to compare the temperature forecasts from climate models using the CMIP3 and CMIP5 conditions:
      http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/itas_giss_aom_sresa1b_0-360E_-90-90N_n_++_a.png
      http://climexp.knmi.nl/data/icmip5_tas_Amon_modmean_rcp26_0-360E_-90-90N_n_+++_a.png
      Notice how the temperate swings before 2000 in the latter output, which is hind casting but was not forecast by the model output run before that data.

      If the models had any true analytical capability beyond a few days there would be no need to tune them with the empirical data. They could just have set starting conditions without any need for tuning.

      50

  • #
    Schizoic III

    Many folks here in the states are also tired, weary, untrusting and highly skeptical of this whole “Global Warming” chatter. The alarmists have overreacted to each and every event. Oil Gore created an issue where and when there was no issue. And God forbid an article penned by the mainstream media mention Mother Nature or God Almighty!

    50

  • #
    robert rosicka

    ABC have put my mind at rest over this issue .

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-04/what-is-a-bomb-cyclone/9305090

    20

  • #
    Ruairi

    Where a snow-laden blizzard has blown
    As its millibars drop like a stone,
    Such a powerful storm,
    Being not quite the norm,
    Is by some, called a bombcyclone,

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  • #
    Rosco

    Is it coincidence that this storm and the extreme high tides with waves swamping coastlines that the news media have all but stated proves dangerous climate change coincides with a “Super Moon” on the first few days of 2018.

    I haven’t heard the MSM mention the extreme tides are caused by the Moon which is undoubtedly the real reason – the waves are due to the storm but without the high tides would not be anywhere near as dramatic.

    80

    • #
      RickWill

      Although the connection is tenuous, super moons are sometimes associated with earthquakes – beware!

      30

  • #
    Graham

    Raised as a Pom in south east asia my parents also had an Australian couple within their circle of friends. To me, their no-nonsense, straight talking and tough as nails approach to life was in stark contrast to the ‘pardon me for living’ attitude exhibited by our expatriot community. I admired it, later emigrating to Queensland. Over the past 40 years I’ve been struck by the erosion of people’s confidence in general and the dumbing down of debate in particular. Here in the Sunshine State the media treats any summer temps in excess of the mid-30s, especially over 3/4 days, as front page material requiring health warnings from every single government instrumentality. To me, those confident Aussies I met in my childhood are, sadly, all but long gone as we now cower ahead of talked-up super storms, typhoons, cataclysmic cyclones, and even windy days when just the odd roof tile is blown off. Can’t see it changing.

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    • #
      RickWill

      Those hot days ARE a growing health hazard. With the new QLD government following SA into power supply nirvana you know power prices are on the rise. For those not making their own power the imminent bill-shock will have hearts and minds working overtime with the high stress of having to find money to pay for power. Victoria had its first serious bill-shock episode following winter last year.

      When you see the shopping centres loaded to the gunwales with people getting free air-conditioned air to avoid using power at home you know the rage is coming.

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      • #
        Bushkid

        Actually Rick, I think the rage might only come when the shopping centres have to cut air conditioning due to cost and availability of electricity supply, and those avoiding home air-con costs have nowhere left to go.

        30

  • #
    Serp

    Don’t forget that BOM has created an Extreme Weather Desk, presumably an initiative of its Wishful Thinking Division, as a sort of in house permanent agent provocateur prompter for the team which puts out its press releases. Safe hands eh!

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Are we getting more extreme weather because of climate change?

      Or do we notice climate change because of more extreme weather?

      Or are they both alternative results, pulled from the same container of male bovine excreta?

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      • #

        Or are they both alternative results, pulled from the same container of male bovine excreta?

        Many near infants learn proper order of things. First excreat, then wipe! Some never learn! 🙂

        10

  • #
    Mark Fraser

    I got caught in a similar storm 40 years ago. 1st Monday in Jan, 12 hour trainride from BOS to Newark, Hilton didn’t want to honor my reservation but I did get into the lobby at least. Sorta normal trainride to DC on Tues nite, Flew to St.Louis for a Thursday appt, but had to cancel Friday in Dallas – ice storm closed DFW.
    Somehow, I don’t imagine this one is worse, it’s just that not many have the acute memories of previous ones. I felt somewhat secure in the Club Car from BOS, sipping G&T eating custom sandwiches and playing bridge with a bunch of friendly New Yorkers, while the other passenger cars didn’t even have any more STANDING room – cattle cars…

    40

  • #
    PeterS

    There is no threat to the climate, be it warming or cooling, more or less hurricanes and cyclones, etc., that requires us to stop using coal according to the rest of the world. The proof is all there for anyone to see. They are building hundreds and hundreds of new coal fired power plants as we speak. As a result the demand for our coal will remain strong for a very long time, perhaps for several decades. So let’s join the rest of the world and start building new coal fire plants ASAP to help this nation get on with the business of survival like the rest of the world is doing. What’s the issue? If there is climate problem it must be due to something else other than burning coal in power plants. What more proof does one need to understand all this? Are there that many Australians who are so blind they can’t see it?

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  • #
    Richard

    Now if this storm was on the west coast of the US, would it be a Bomb(e) Alaska?

    “Bombe Alaska is a spectacular dessert that is a real show-stopper. It requires perfect timing but the results are well worth it. Geoff Jansz shares his easy tips and own special ‘flare’ in creating this truly impressive ice-cream dessert that is cold on the inside and hot on the outside!”

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    Richard

    Hmmm. Linky missing. Look up http://www.cdkitchen.com/ and drool

    20

  • #
    TdeF

    Off topic the Australian headlines the drop in living standards in Australia.

    The foremost cause? The cost of electricity. So you have the poor people’s party, the Labor party comfortable with the highest electricity prices in the world, no exemptions. A massive tax grab on the poor.

    Then you have the convservative party, the rich people’s party comfortable with billions in cash flowing overseas to buy Chinese windmills and solar panels while forcing industries to close. Our faux Prime Minister is even suggesting businesses buy carbon credits overseas to meet their ‘obligations’. I thought we did not have a carbon tax?

    Remember smelting is based wholly on cheap electricity and producing CO2, so we are closing even basic metal production. So when is Alcoa going to close? Or is that a State Secret too?

    All this because of the Climate? What’s wrong with the Climate, apart from the sensationalizing of every weather event as the end of the world. When did Climate Change have a DNA?

    Meanwhile the BOM have terrified Victorians about the possibility of a single hot day and not even particularly hot?
    Of course it will be followed by a huge cold change, a sudden 16C drop, but they say nothing about that.

    Personally it would be nice to have a long hot summer in Victoria, the way I remember them. The last few years have been cold, but that’s just the weather apparently. Keep paying those massive electricity bills and all will be well.

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  • #
    pat

    note how Wikipedia has cemented the “cold snap” meme, especially with the choice of Borenstein’s headline:

    Wikipedia: Cold wave
    A cold wave (known in some regions as a cold snap) is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air…
    In the United States, a cold spell is defined as the national average high temperature dropping below 20 °F (−7 °C)(Ref #2)

    Ref #2: Borenstein, Seth (January 10, 2014). “Winters aren’t colder; we’re just softer”. Florida Today. Melbourne, Florida. pp. 8A. Archived from the original on January 13, 2014. Retrieved January 12, 2014. (***2 LINKS, BOTH BROKEN)

    Historical cold waves
    21-st century cold waves
    Cold wave starting late December 2017 (December 24 respectively), North America. A persistent wave of temperature extremes, including a cold wave, took place in Canada and the northeastern and central areas of the United States from Northern Canada to Mississippi, with temperatures in much of Canada of around −25 °C (−13 °F) and as low as −39 °C (−38 °F) in New York state, and as high as 21 °C (70 °F) and 31 °C (88 °F) in Sandberg and Los Angeles, respectively, in California.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cold_wave

    cute how California is included.

    this is the only excerpt I can find online from the Borenstein “story”; full article behind paywall:

    ***2014: Florida Today: Winters aren’t colder, we’re just softer
    Scientists: Deep freeze created hoopla because it rarely happens these days…
    Carbin said those occurrences often happen in periods that last several days so it makes more sense to talk about cold outbreaks instead of cold days, and there have been 27 distinct cold snaps. Between 1970 and 1989, a dozen such events occurred…
    https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/113500939/

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    pat

    comment in moderation re: note how Wikipedia has cemented the “cold snap” meme, especially with the choice of Borenstein’s headline

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    pat

    behind paywall, but managed to find these excerpts:

    Big energy users act to save the grid from blackouts over summer
    The Australian-2 hours ago
    More than a dozen big ­energy users across NSW, Victoria and South Australia could be told to power down or power off this weekend as searing heat across the southeast puts energy supplies under pressure.
    Temperatures are predicted to soar above 40C in Victoria and parts of South Australia tomorrow in a hot spell spreading to NSW on Sunday…
    Large-scale energy users including BlueScope Steel, Australian Paper and Anthony Pratt’s Visy are among 14 companies that could be asked to power down over the weekend, as part of an Australian Energy Market Operator program shoring up reserves during summer peaks…

    Companies that will “power up” include energy producer AGL Energy and other network providers such as Flow Power, EnerNoc and SA Power Networks that have internal levers to lower demand across the network.
    The agreement also includes more than 100 diesel generators midway through installation in Morwell in the Latrobe Valley, which AEMO contracted as an emergency stopgap. Terms of the agreements and how much each company is paid are confidential. More companies are likely to join this year…

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      PeterS

      Such band-aid approaches will last only for so long. What are they going to do when we close down the next one or two coal fired plants? Replace them with even more diesel generators? Meanwhile other countries are building nuclear and coal fired plants in huge numbers. Stupid is as stupid does.

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    Andre Lewis

    Main news on channels 7 and 9 (probably others but I dont watch) every night show a forecast for the next day in our part of Brisbane that always turns out to be wrong by 2 or even 5 degrees when the actual temperature is announced the day after. It is NEVER warmer that the forecast!

    I suspect the BOM churns this out knowing people remember a forecast but not always what actually occurred leading to a long term impression of high temps.

    Pure propaganda not accurate forecasting.

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    el gordo

    As global cooling begins to bite we should expect more severe winds in mid latitudes.

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    • #
      Ghibli

      Hi Gordo

      Wind in your mid latitudes?

      Did you eat something a bit off?

      Don’t worry it’ll pass.

      Cheers

      [That is SOOOO funny! NOT.]ED

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      • #
        el gordo

        Settle down Ghibli, better sit up front so that I can keep an eye on you.

        We know that when the world enters a mini ice age we can expect huge wind storms and sea storms, this was clearly illustrated in the popular classic Day After Tomorrow.

        In the real world, returning to the late 13th century sea floods were making the news, do you know why?

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    pat

    unfazed by BoM’s previous wrong forecasts which they have breathlessly reported, ABC is all in again:

    5 Jan: ABC: Unattributed: Heatwave: Temperatures to rise above 40C as weather forecasters issue heat stress warning
    Parts of south-east Australia are warned to expect a heatwave, with temperatures expected to rise in Victoria and Tasmania from this afternoon and the mercury set to soar above 40 degrees on Saturday.
    Temperatures will skyrocket in Sydney’s west, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting highs of 45 in Penrith, 44 in Richmond and 43 in Liverpool, Blacktown and Campbelltown on Sunday.
    It is expected the hot weather in the Sydney area will last until early next week before a cool change…

    The Bureau has warned Sydneysiders to check on elderly neighbours.
    “Heatwaves can particularly affect vulnerable people, so the sick, the elderly and children,” BOM duty forecaster Rob Taggart said.
    “People should check up on their elderly neighbours, stay in cool conditions, keep hydrated and make sure that you’re looking after those who might be vulnerable.”
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/heatwave-weather-forecasters-issue-heat-stress-warning/9305728

    5 Jan: ABC: BOM warns Sydneysiders to check on elderly neighbours amid 45C heatwave
    By Siobhan Fogarty
    Updated about 2 hours ago
    Several areas in Sydney’s west are predicted to swelter through the weekend, with highs of 45C in Penrith, 44C in Richmond and 43C in Liverpool, Blacktown and Campbelltown.
    The CBD and eastern suburbs will not be immune, with the bureau warning temperatures in those areas could top 40C.
    “Heatwaves can particularly affect vulnerable people, so the sick, the elderly and children,” BOM duty forecaster Rob Taggart said.
    While the heatwave is not expected to break records, it could extend for several days in some areas of the state…

    Big power users in New South Wales are also expecting to be asked to cut back over the weekend, as people switch on their air conditioners.
    Bluscope Steel, in the Illawarra, was last year asked to reduce its demand for power during heatwaves and is likely to be approached again this year.
    “We will be doing what we can, but we have technical limitations on our usage,” a spokesman said.
    Bluescope cannot power off completely because of the danger of damaging the plant.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/bom-warns-sydneysiders-to-check-on-neighbours-amid-45c-heatwave/9305586

    LINK to related article: 2016: ABC: State of the Climate report 2016: Extreme heat events increasing in duration, frequency and intensity
    By national science reporter Jake Sturmer
    The Bureau of Meteorology and CSIRO’s biennial State of the Climate report also found May-July rainfall had reduced by around 19 per cent since 1970 in the south-west of Australia…
    What do we do about it?
    Scientists say there is not a moment to lose and we must reduce the consumption of fossil fuels and consequently lower CO2 emissions.
    BOM’s Dr Braganza said even if countries kept emissions steady today, there would still be more warming over the next few decades…

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    el gordo

    Its a regional cooling signal.

    ‘At the coast, major flood was reported in eastern New England as the ocean swelled ashore. The Weather Service tweeted Boston’s tide observation was nearing its highest level ever recorded (since 1921) early Thursday afternoon. It said it was getting “inundated with coastal flood reports…some of the worst in recent history.”

    The Washington Post

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    pat

    ABC has taxpayer-funded corresondents on the ground in the US, but they seemingly only report on the latest Trump tweet or anti-Trump “story”:

    ABC Just In: Season two of Trump Land has landed, don’t change the channel – Analysis
    By North America correspondent Stephanie March
    Posted about 4 hours ago | Updated about 2 hours ago

    actual headline…ABC tries to finish Trump off again!

    Donald Trump: Second season of presidency shaping up to be as jaw-dropping as the first
    The question is will his most recent foray end up with him off the show for good? Or does he have enough clout to carry his own spin-off?…

    meanwhile, the best they can do about the “BOMB” is about 20 paras on Iguanas (with sharks & turtles thrown in for good measure) from AP:

    5 Jan: ABC: AP: US weather: Iguanas freezing up and falling from trees in Florida amid ‘bomb cyclone’ cold snap
    Temperatures have dipped below 5 degrees Celsius in parts of South Florida this week, according to the National Weather Service in Miami…

    Sharks that have been frozen completely solid have been washing up on a beach in Massachusetts, and sea turtles also stiffen up when temperatures fall…

    TWEET: Maxine Bentzel (CBS): The iguanas have a good chance of thawing out if you move them in the sun. Just be careful
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/us-cold-weather-sees-iguanas-freezing-falling-from-trees-florida/9305938

    oh, they did carry another report from the Wires (guess their correspondents are too cold to go out and interview Americans suffering like the iguanas, etc):

    5 Jan: ABC: AP/Reuters: Massive ‘bomb cyclone’ slams US and Canadian east coast, thousands of flights cancelled
    The weather system is expected to be followed immediately by a blast of icy cold air that could break records around the country, with wind chills expected to fall to -40 degrees Celsius in some areas…
    Three people were killed in North Carolina after their vehicles ran off snow-covered roads, authorities said…

    National Weather Service Meteorologist Dan Peterson said record low temperatures were predicted for 28 major cities across New England, eastern New York and the mid-Atlantic states by dawn Sunday…
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-05/massive-bomb-cyclone-slams-us-east-coast/9305662

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      robert rosicka

      Pat the ABC has run a personal campaign of vitriol against Trump since he was elected and they even have a show dedicated to putting him down , the dummy spit is strong and long lasting.

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    tom0mason

    OT. but well done Jo!

    I see Jo is hitting a wider audience via http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/01/02/alarmists-trumpet-global-warming-record-cold-temperatures/ and reprinted at https://principia-scientific.org/alarmists-trumpet-global-warming-amid-record-cold-temperatures/

    They quote Jo —

    As Australian science writer Joanne Nova quipped, for the radical climate crowd, “extreme cold is just weather but all heat waves are climate change.”
    and
    “Shepherd’s inconsistent use of cold and warm imply that cold is not just a lack of heat; it’s something fundamentally different, Nova wrote. “Heat, after all, can prove human attribution, but cold cannot prove the opposite.”

    The message is getting out…

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    Philip Mulholland

    A couple more pictures for the collection:-
    EarthWindMap for 4th January 2018 showing Mean Sea Level Pressure of 967mb for the storm centre offshore.
    https://earth.nullschool.net/#2018/01/04/1500Z/wind/surface/level/overlay=mean_sea_level_pressure/orthographic=-61.34,33.66,968/loc=-71.617,37.787

    NIC Snow Ice Chart for Thursday Jan 4 2018 showing the snow cover on the eastern seaboard of the US.
    (Compare this analysis plot with the satellite picture at the head of this post).
    http://www.natice.noaa.gov/pub/ims/ims_v3/ims_gif/ARCHIVE/USA/2018/ims2018004_usa.gif

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    Rud Istvan

    The old fashioned name for these classic winter storms is Nor’easter. Ben Franklin was the first to figure out how and why they develop and the direction they move.. The snow amount they produce depends on how close to the coast the eye is. The Noreaster of Feb 1978 that I lived through in Boston produced 48 inches of snow on average in 24 hours, with drifts up to 18 feet. Could not plow the highways because of drifts; took a week with big front loaders and dump trucks to clear just the main roads.

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    RAH

    The calamities caused by this exceptional cold weather due to climate change never cease this winter! Now it’s raining iguanas in South Florida!
    https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/stunned-iguanas-drop-from-trees-in-south-florida-after-cold-spell/70003754

    On Tuesday this week I was called in off vacation to drive. I was called into work during scheduled time off because a large number of drivers had called off work due to frozen pipes, furnace failures, or cars that wouldn’t start due to global warming.
    I left my trusty GMC pickup truck that I usually use to go back and forth to work and took my Toyota FJ cruiser in 4wd and that was due to global warming.
    When I got into the truck at work to start it the thermometer read -15 F and that was caused by global warming.
    The truck would start but would not stay running because the diesel fuel was gelled due to global warming.
    The rear brake shoes were frozen to the drums due to global warming.
    It was three hours before I finally departed because the techs were busy working on other trucks that had the same problems before they could get to mine and that was due to global warming.
    As I drove up I-65 towards my destination in the Chicago area I passed through Lafayette, IN where some of their power lines were making a noticeable hum due to the high load in the cold weather and that was due to global warming.
    During my 600 mile round trip I noticed about three times as many vehicles were on the shoulder due to mechanical problems and that was due to global warming.

    This warming is just causing all kinds of problems.

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    Betapug

    The use of the incendiary “bomb” language goes back to the Bergen School’s informal use in the 1940s, well before the invention of the SUV. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/origins-bomb-cyclone-weather-forecast-meteorology

    Framing rules everything in the Green world. Wish I could find again the link to the NOAA style manual discouraging the use of the term “positive feedback” to describe the posed CO2/warming/water vapour cycle. Say “negative effects instead”.

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