A ‘Bomb Cyclone’ Forming off the East Coast Could Bring the Coldest Temperatures in 100 Years

As record cold temperatures paralyze much of the country, a “bomb cyclone” forming off the East Coast is threatening to douse the area from Northern Florida to New England in ice and snow. The weather event has the potential to make 2018 one of the worst winters in the U.S. yet, and it’s only the first week of January.

A bomb cyclone, scientifically known as an explosive cyclogenesis, typically brews over the water where drops in barometric pressure can make it an extra forceful weather event. Making matters worse, forecasters say the storm could trap the bone-chilling cold currently putting the middle of the U.S. in a deep freeze over the Atlantic coastline later this week. The extreme cold has already been blamed for nine deaths across the U.S.

Meteorologists are calling the event Winter Storm Grayson, and they say it could bring snow to the Southeast on Wednesday, as well as possible blizzard conditions to the Northeast Wednesday night and Thursday. After the wet winter weather passes, the cold air would make the east coast even more miserable. Boston, for instance, could see its coldest week in 100 years.

But if the snow and the cold don’t get you, the wind will, says the National Weather Service. Windchill advisories are currently in effect across the mid-Atlantic, with warnings in place for Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania. Pittsburgh and State College, Penn. may even experience -20 degree weather Tuesday evening — and that’s before the big storm hits.