This researcher helped coin the term ‘bomb cyclone.’ He did it to keep people safe.

This researcher helped coin the term ‘bomb cyclone.’ He did it to keep people safe.

Thu January 4th, 2018
Matthew Cappucci | Washington Post

Understanding bombogenesis and how the term originated at MIT.

It came from a paper we published in 1980. The title was “Synoptic-Dynamic Climatology of the ‘Bomb.’ ” I was a graduate student at the time [at MIT], and my adviser, who was the lead author, Frederick Sanders, actually coined the term. He had quite a bit of experience making forecasts for cyclones in the North Atlantic that were developing very rapidly. Oftentimes, we’d even say explosively. Given their explosive development, it was an easy path to take to just call these systems “bombs.”

 

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