What Is A Bomb Cyclone? Massive Storm To Hit East Coast

It seems like the cold weather conditions in eastern United States are set to get worse in the latter part of the week. A massive storm is expected to hit the East Coast on Thursday and it is going to be so intense that some meteorologists have come up with a new term to describe it: bomb cyclone….

 

A Polar Vortex Expert Explains Why It’s So Freakin’ Cold

Stepping outside has become a physical feat in itself across the United States, with stories coming out daily in the past week exploiting how cold it is. People have shot videos pouring out boiling water that instantly transformed into ice. In some parts of the country, wind chill temperatures have dipped far enough to make Mars seem balmy. It’s been deadly, and in the next couple days, the east coast is going to get pummeled by a so-called “winter hurricane.”

But the reason why the United States has been plunged into what seems like a giant freezer is far more complicated than what a certain tweet suggests. Marlene Kretschmer is a scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. She focuses on the polar vortex and climate change and explained to The Daily Beast that we should actually be nicer to the polar vortex….

 

Batman’s Gotham City provides test case for community resilience model

If a community is resilient, it can withstand and recover from an unanticipated disaster, like an earthquake, fire or flood. But since every disaster and every community is unique, a uniform measure for defining ‘resilience’ has been hard to come by for engineers and social scientists. A new study offers an innovative approach to defining resilience that could help communities better prepare for hazards….