The Bomb Cyclone of Christmas 2022

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If you don't live in the US, you may not have been paying too much attention to the weather lately. Over the Christmas we were hit with what was called a "bomb cyclone". It brought significant snow in some areas and high winds with extremely low temperatures in other areas.

Looking back, the brunt of this storm was definitely attributed to the high winds. Winds in excess of 40 miles per hour in some cases. It was pretty brutal. Trust me, I know, I was one of the idiots that was out driving in it.

Actually, in my neck of the woods we got pretty lucky. I think in total we maybe got 4 inches of s now. Pretty lame looking back. Honestly, if it hadn't been for the wind, it was really just your typical winter day in Michigan.

The winds brought things like blowing snow and whiteout conditions that made travel quite difficult. Add to that the possibility of lake effect snow, and in some areas things quickly got out of hand.

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Lucky for me, I live and work on the east side of Michigan. That means unless the wind is coming from the north/northeast, there isn't much chance for lake effect snow. Since the jet stream typically flows from west to east, it is far more likely that towns on the west side of the state are going to get hit the hardest.

Lake Michigan provides the perfect snow making factory when the conditions are just right. I know some areas on the west side of the state were looking at close to 12 inches of snow. Then of course we have the Buffalo area.

They frequently get hit hard, but that combination of Lake Erie to their west and the recent winter conditions were the perfect storm (pardon the pun) for this Christmas weekend.

As you can see from the photos, we weren't totally unscathed. When my wife and I were driving around for different Christmas festivities, she kept saying she couldn't believe how in some areas you could still see the grass.

Then you had areas like my office where the wind pushed the snow into drifts almost as high as my office door.

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This is the view looking back at my truck in the parking lot from the door of my office. I was standing fully upright all 5' 10" of me with my phone held at chest height. This view is facing due east, so it is pretty easy to understand what happened.

Off to the right is another outdoor corridor that leads between two sections of the building. The next set of photos are looking down that corridor.

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There must have been some weird cyclonic action happening because that snow is actually shoved against the east side of that part of the building. I guess it's possible that the wind wasn't coming from the west like I thought, but given the fact that Lake Huron is just a couple miles down the road, I would have expected there to be more snow if it was coming from the east.

As you can see, the winds pushed the show with such force that it popped the screens out of the windows. I still have snow logged between my inner window an the outside screen.

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It took them the better part of two days of work to get most of the snow removed from in front of my door and down this corridor. There is still quite a bit that they could remove if they really wanted to be meticulous about it. The funny thing is, after temps in the negative double digits due to the wind chill last weekend, today we are supposed to hit close to 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

I don't expect much of the snow will survive the New Years weekend. I guess it just depends on how frozen the ground is.

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This is a little further down that corridor looking north. As you can see towards the double doors, the snow kind of tapers off a bit. If you look to the immediate left, you can see what I was talking about with the snow trapped between the window and the screen.

They had to use a bucket loader to move the snow and they could only carry so much at a time in each bucket. As I said, it was a long process with lots and lots of "back up beeping" outside my office window.

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This final photo is looking back down that corridor towards my office door on the left. That window is mine and as you can see, there was much less snow trapped in my window than on the other side of the corridor.

I have heard from some friends over in the UK that they are supposed to be getting some of the remnants of the bomb cyclone that hit us. Hopefully The Atlantic Ocean doesn't fuel the storm more like the Great Lakes do in my area.

I love the Great Lakes, but they definitely leave the opportunity for some crazy weather patterns in this part of the country.

Although it feels like our snow totals have been pretty low in past years, I have a feeling this isn't going to be the last winter storm of 2022/2023!

I'm a day late, but since I was walking around outside my office I am going to include this as a #wednesdaywalk posts sponsored by @tattoodjay.

I hope you enjoyed the photos!

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Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports

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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced