After The Storm

Day 12: Bombogenesis (or more correctly, "explosive cyclogenesis") is the term used when a mid-latitude cyclone intensifies rapidly and the barometer drops at least 24 millibars over a period of 24 hours. The phrase we heard bandied about was "bomb cyclone," and it set most of us to battening down the hatches and otherwise preparing for the blow. The incoming storm was supposed to be record-breaking, and indeed it was, but just not in my yard. My weather station recorded a peak gust of 23 and a mere .38" of rain. We had a couple of wall-ratting but distant thunderclaps yesterday and the power went out overnight, but "storm" is too strong a word for the breezy, moderately wet conditions which prevailed at my house. It was nothing compared to the Columbus Day Storm of 1962 when gusts to 100 MPH were recorded in the western Washington interior and to 160 MPH in the Willapa Hills. The radar station at Mt. Hebo (Oregon) logged a peak of 176 MPH. Storm? That was a real storm, not just a bit of bluster and blow like yesterday's activity. The "bomb cyclone" didn't even knock all the leaves off the dogwood or my Japanese maple. Let's not dignify it by calling it a "storm."