‘Bomb Cyclone’ Pummels Northeast, Whipping the East Coast With Snow and Bitter Cold<br />“This is the first time I’ve ever seen the water come this high in the downtown area,” Commissioner Finn<br />said, as the flooded roads turned slushy behind him and the wind whipped heavy snow through the air.<br />The Arctic is not as cold as it used to be — the region is warming faster than any other — and studies suggest<br />that this warming is weakening the jet stream, which ordinarily acts like a giant lasso, corralling cold air around the pole.<br />“We still don’t know the full effects at this time, but we do know<br />that the winds out there have been ferocious,” Mr. Cooper said on Thursday, urging North Carolinians to stay home.<br />“Virginians should keep a close watch on the local weather forecast<br />and stay off roads during this weather event unless travel is absolutely necessary,” the governor’s office said in a statement on Thursday, one day after Gov.<br />The National Weather Service updated its forecast to predict eight inches of snow in New York City and 15 inches on the eastern end of Long Island.<br />Yet the storm, notable for a steep drop in atmospheric pressure<br />that prompted some forecasters to describe it as a “bomb cyclone,” was but one act in a prolonged run of misery that has already enveloped millions of people in a wintry torment of Arctic air and snow-blown streets.<br />“I don’t know what happens — it’s a lot of snow.”<br />In New York, six inches of snow had piled up in parts of Brooklyn and Queens by noon, while sections of Long Island were coated in nine inches.
