Before moving to New Zealand I had never heard the term ‘weather bomb’ before. Since then, though, I’ve heard it used aplenty.

The media are particularly fond of it - it’s such a dynamic term - and, well, I had thought it was fun, fuzzy phrasing for sudden, very inclement weather.

Imagine my surprise and delight, then, when a colleague pointed out that it has a proper, technical definition. One which excludes the bad weather here in Wellington yesterday and Wednesday.

A weather bomb is a “rapidly deepening extratropical cyclonic low-pressure area” in which atmospheric pressure drops by 24 hPa or more in 24 hours. The terminology itself has been around for a while (since the ’40s/’50s, according to Wikipedia), and alternate (awesome) terms include ‘explosive cyclogenesis’ and ‘bombogenesis’.

So, now you know. Next time you hear someone throw the term ‘weather bomb’ around inaccurately, you can be constructive with your criticism (Steve) :P

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My job according to the Up Goer Five Text Editor

I had a bash at describing my day job using this. This is what I ended up with :)

People who want to understand the world, can be hard to understand. I help normal people understand those people, and the work they do.

 

What would yours be?