The Weather Outside is Frightful

This winter has seen some weather extremes all over the world. And weather men and women are using terms such as snowmaggedon, bomb cyclone, arctic blast and polar vortex.

It’s been so cold that ocean sharks have frozen to death, penguins at zoos were taken indoors and bubbles made outside would freeze to delicate balls of ice. The surrounding landscape of Niagara Falls, where the spray reaches a surface have frozen to create an icicled, sculptural display.

A bomb cyclone is a cyclone (a rotating low air pressure storm) that meets a blast of icy Northern air from the Arctic—hence the term Arctic Blast.

A polar vortex is a real weather term describing normal low pressure at both the North and South Poles. This pressure tends to strengthen in winter creating winds that blow down from the Poles.

Snowmaggedon is a mash up—snow and Armageddon which is defined as a monumental battle between good and evil.