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January 30, 2026<\/p>\n
3 min read<\/p>\n
Add Us On Google<\/span>Add SciAm<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n The latest winter wallop: a bomb cyclone and Florida freezes<\/p>\n In the latest bout of winter weather, a bomb cyclone could bring blizzard conditions to the Carolinas while freezing temperatures reach all the way to Florida<\/p>\n By Tom Metcalfe edited by Andrea Thompson<\/span><\/p>\n Commuters arrive at South Station in Boston in the cold on January 28, 2026.<\/p>\n Craig F. Walker\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images<\/p>\n Intensely cold air is scouring the central and eastern U.S. again and will send temperatures plummeting all the way to the tip of Florida. Along with this new Arctic incursion, a major \u201cbomb cyclone\u201d storm is strengthening off the coast of the Carolinas, potentially bringing rare blizzard conditions to the region.<\/p>\n \u201cSome areas haven\u2019t seen this amount of accumulating snow in over 30 years,\u201d wrote the National Weather Service\u2019s office in Wilmington, N.C., on Facebook.<\/p>\n The latest Arctic blast on top of already cold conditions means subzero Fahrenheit temperatures (conditions below \u201318 degrees Celsius) are expected across the Midwest and Ohio Valley and much colder than usual weather is anticipated across the eastern half of the country. And the cold is plunging unusually far south, with Florida is facing the coldest low temperatures it has seen in more than a decade, with even Orlando and Daytona Beach expected to see low temperatures in the 20s F (negative single degrees C). And as the bomb cyclone develops, strong winds could make it feel even colder along a broad stretch of the East Coast, with subzero F wind chills expected deep into the South.<\/p>\n If you’re enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.<\/p>\n Bomb cyclones have had that name since 1980, when meteorologists Fred Sanders and John Gyakum, both then at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, coined the term \u201cbombogenesis\u201d to describe how these storms rapidly lower in pressure\u2014by at least 24 millibars in 24 hours. The scientists likened the process to the detonation of a bomb, although bomb cyclones are, in a sense, exploding inward.<\/p>\n Their dramatic name ensures \u201cbomb cyclones\u201d always get a lot of media coverage, but they really aren\u2019t all that rare. At least one bomb cyclone hits the continental U.S. every winter, usually near the Northeast, where they are typically fed by cold air from the north colliding with warm, moist air from the south. \u201cIt\u2019s not uncommon to get bomb cyclones off the coast of New York or Boston,\u201d says atmospheric scientist Ryan Torn of the University at Albany, State University of New York. “But this one is right off the southeast coast of the U.S., which is a very low latitude place for that to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n The lowest temperature expected in the eastern half of the country through Monday, February 2, 2026.<\/p>\n Forecasts so far show the snow concentrated in the eastern portions of the Carolinas and Virginia and in far southeastern New England. There is some chance of snow along the East Coast between those spots.<\/p>\n But the storm will pack a punch beyond just snowfalls. Meteorologist Jeff Masters, who co-founded the weather service Weather Underground, adds that some area could also be hit by heavy winds gusts, while locations along the coast are preparing for flooding. \u201cThere will be a long, lasting impact in these areas that aren\u2019t used to heavy winters,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n In this case, the freezing cold of the recent ice storm is making the bomb cyclone worse by deepening the difference between the competing blasts of cold and warm air: \u201cThe air has already been primed…. Now we\u2019re getting a secondary push of cold air,\u201d explains University of Florida atmospheric scientist Esther Mullens.<\/p>\n And University of Michigan atmospheric scientist Richard Rood says that locations like the Carolinas can expect more bomb cyclones in the future, thanks to global warming, which has increased the temperature of both the atmosphere and the Gulf Stream.<\/p>\n \u201cThe oceans are warmer than they used to be, and the air is warmer than it used to be,\u201d he says. \u201cThat makes that contrast between the warm air and the cold air exceptionally high, and that\u2019s what contributes to this rapid development.\u201d<\/p>\n We’re looking to host the most interesting science conversations on the web for this topic.<\/span><\/p>\n Start the Discussion<\/span><\/p>\n If you enjoyed this article, I\u2019d like to ask for your support. 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I hope it does that for you, too.<\/p>\n If you subscribe to Scientific American<\/span>, you help ensure that our coverage is centered on meaningful research and discovery; that we have the resources to report on the decisions that threaten labs across the U.S.; and that we support both budding and working scientists at a time when the value of science itself too often goes unrecognized.<\/p>\n In return, you get essential news, captivating podcasts, brilliant infographics, can’t-miss newsletters, must-watch videos, challenging games, and the science world’s best writing and reporting. You can even gift someone a subscription.<\/p>\n There has never been a more important time for us to stand up and show why science matters. I hope you\u2019ll support us in that mission.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" January 30, 2026 3 min read Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm The latest winter wallop: a bomb cyclone and Florida freezes In the latest bout of winter weather, a bomb cyclone could bring blizzard conditions to the Carolinas while freezing temperatures reach all the way to Florida By Tom Metcalfe edited by Andrea Thompson Commuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[212,9645,13055,3933,587,3653,22662],"class_list":{"0":"post-43291","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-bomb","9":"tag-cold","10":"tag-cyclone","11":"tag-eastern","12":"tag-extreme","13":"tag-freeze","14":"tag-u-s-again"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}On supporting science journalism<\/h2>\n
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