What’s a ‘bomb cyclone’?—and what to know about the East Coast’s potentially history-making snowstorm

A major blizzard has brought lashing winds and heavy snowfall across the East Coast, causing many local leaders to declare states of emergency and restrict or limit travel in light of the storm’s “ potentially historic ” nature.

[...]

More than 65 million people, or almost a fifth of the U.S. population, were covered by alerts relating to the storm on Sunday evening, the Washington Post reported, with about 35 million, or more than 10% of the U.S. population, from Virginia to Maine , issued blizzard warnings. 

[...]

The winter storm intensified in a process called “bombogenesis,” where a cyclone drops atmospheric pressure in 24 hours, eventually resulting in stronger winds and heavier precipitation—in this case, snow. Bomb cyclones can happen anytime, but they mainly occur during fall and winter when cold air from the Arctic goes down and clashes with warmer air.

[...]

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who issued a local state of emergency, said in a press conference on Sunday that New York City has “not faced a storm of this scale in the last decade” and added that, if the storm unfolds as predicted, with snowfall possibly reaching up to 2 feet, the storm will rank among the top 10 snowfall events the city has ever faced.