A friend asks “So what is up with this bomb cyclone term? Is it just a blizzard with a more compelling name? Or is it something unique that I have not experienced before now? Is bomb cyclone a technical term?”

Answer: like “polar vortex”, “bomb” is a term that has been used by meteorologists for many years but is just now being brought into popular usage by weather media. It refers to a winter storm over the ocean that strengthens very rapidly – the technical requirement is that the minimum surface pressure drops by at least 24 hectopascals (hPa, also known as millibars, or mb) in 24 hours. The term was brought into the scientific literature by Fred Sanders and John Gyakum in a 1980 paper, here:

http://journals.ametsoc.org/…/1520-0493(1980)108%3C1589%3AS…

a less technical and more recent discussion is here:

https://www.fastcompany.com/…/is-bomb-cyclone-even-a-real-t…

a bit more history and some quotes from Gyakum:

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/…/bomb-cyclone-definition_us…

And if you want to know more about the polar vortex while you’re at it: Darryn Waugh, Lorenzo Polvani and I wrote an article about that term for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society that is a bit more scientific than what you’ll find in the mass (or social) media, but more accessible than a typical peer-reviewed research article:

http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/pdf/10.1175/BAMS-D-15-00212.1