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NOTHING LIKE A BOMB TO GET YOUR ATTENTION....

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THURSDAY'S FEATURE POST

You would never know it around the Midwest but a wicked storm known as a bomb pounded the Northeast Tuesday night and Wednesday. Essentially a "bomb" is a mid-level cyclone (low pressure) that strengthens really fast. To earn the title, the pressure generally must drop 24 millibars (a unit that measures pressure) within 24 hours. The word "bomb" is used to describe the explosive power these storms derive from rapid pressure drops.

The storm over the Northeast far exceeded the meteorological standards: Its pressure dropped 24 millibars in just 14 hours -- and plummeted 35 millibars over 24 hours.The system broke low-pressure records for October in Boston; Providence, Rhode Island; Hartford, Connecticut; and Portland. The pressures recorded would be typical of a category 2 hurricane.

Here in the heartland, the lowest pressure ever measured was in a 2010 mega storm that occurred October 26th, 2010. It produced a rock bottom barometric reading of 28.20" (954.9 mb) at Big Fork, Minnesota. That annihilated the previous Minnesota state record of 28.43" set at Albert Lee and Austin November 10, 1998.

You can see the tight pressure gradient of the 2010 bomb that is typical of such systems, in essence they are giant wind storms. The lower the pressure, the stronger the winds.

This satellite image shows the 2010 storm as it spins over the upper Midwest. Snow was falling in North Dakota with strong to severe thunderstorms arching ahead of the cold front in the Ohio Valley.

Below you can see the path of a damaging squall line that rolled east out of Missouri and into Ohio. Peak gusts are also shown which for many parts of the Midwest that were in the range of 55 to 70 mph.

This storm was significantly stronger than the one that sunk the Edmund Fitzgerald in November of 1975 killing all 29 crew members. In the 2010 case waves on Lake Superior were as high as 30 feet but improved data and communications gave mariners ample warning. As you can see it was needed!

On the topic of winds, we're going to see a significant increase in them over the next 24-48 hours. These are the surface pressure anomalies Friday morning. Those isobars a packed pretty good indicating gusty conditions.