As many Americans hunker down under blankets and in front of space heaters this week, meteorologists will be staring at satellite images of the "truly amazing" storm spinning up the East Coast. Maue They will be watching a phenomenon known as "bombogenesis," which is when a mid-latitude cyclone rapidly intensifies due to a sudden drop in pressure in the center of the storm. In general, a cyclone is a storm that rotates or spins around a low-pressure center. That can refer to a variety of storms, but is perhaps most commonly associated with tropical cyclones, which are so named because they originate in tropical ocean waters. These include hurricanes in the Atlantic, typhoons in the Pacific, and the cyclones in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean.

Cyclones are basically formed and fueled by a mix of warm moist air rising from warm ocean water and cooler air above, which forms the rising warm air into clouds. As the warm air rises, it leaves something of a vacuum, which other, colder air rushes into. A phenomenon called the Coriolis effect causes the winds to swirl. A "bomb cyclone" is one such rotating storm, but one where the pressure at the center of the storm drops very rapidly. The term sounds menacing, but it actually refers to the rapid drop in pressure, not the effects of the storm.