The “Bomb Cyclone” whipped the East Coast Thursday, with winds of up to 60 mph and snow falling at the rate of two inches per hour.
One meteorologist told Cheddar the arctic blast dubbed “Grayson” is even more powerful than 1993’s “Storm of the Century.”
“Fortunately is located just off-shore, so we are not seeing the very worst of it,” said Bob Henson, blogger at Weather Underground. “It’s also moving so quickly that the snowfall amounts, the totals, are not going to be as high as they were in that 1993 storm. However, the winds are going to be hellacious.”
The 1993 storm caused the equivalent of $9.3 billion in damages from the Deep South through the East Coast.
But this year’s blizzard, despite its ominous-sounding descriptor, may be less scary than it sounds. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration notes the term “Bomb Cyclone” comes from the term “bombogenesis,” which describes pressures that drop to at least 24 millibars over 24 hours.
Still, Henson points out, Grayson has already claimed some victims.
“We just had a couple of fatalities in North Carolina of people out on the roads and their trucks slid of the roads,” he said. He added that the cold temperatures can also be deadly.
In order to stay safe, Henson suggests staying in a warm place, avoiding travel, and keeping off the road as the most important steps.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/climate-changes-role-in-winter-storm-grayson).
Smoke and ash from massive wildfires in the American West shrouded the sky and led to air quality alerts on parts of the East Coast.
U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years.
Health officials say the delta variant of the coronavirus continues to surge and accounts for an estimated 83% of U.S. COVID-19 cases.
Canada will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into Canada on Aug. 9, and those from the rest of the world on Sept. 7.
Pacific Gas & Electric says its equipment may have been involved in the start of the big Dixie Fire burning in the Sierra Nevada.
German officials defended their actions ahead of last week’s devastating floods that caught many towns by surprise and left 196 people dead in Western Europe, but they conceded that lessons still need to be learned from the disaster.
Smoke and heat from the massive wildfire in southeastern Oregon are creating so-called fire clouds over the blaze.
Emergency workers in western German and Belgium are rushing to rescue hundreds of people in danger or still unaccounted for as the death toll from devastating floods rose to more than 125 people.
Jeff Bezos blasted into space Tuesday on his rocket company’s first flight with people on board, becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft.
A Dutch 18-year-old is about to become the youngest person in space. Blue Origin announced that instead of a $28 million auction winner launching with founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday, runner-up Oliver Daemen will be on board.
