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The Bomb Cyclone Cometh

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Here we go again. Miserable weather is coming to Maine. This time it’s a blizzard, a northeaster, a big, bad storm that has been tagged as a “bomb cyclone” by the meteorologists. (According to the New York Times, a bomb cyclone is a storm that has a sharp drop in barometric pressure.) But as Nestor Ramas from the Boston Globe put it, this term “seems designed to evoke maximum terror.”

“Terror” might be too strong a word to describe our reaction, but bomb cyclone, with its potential high wind and resultant destruction, certainly got our attention. We have sprung into action. Pots of water sit on our stove, we bought extra lamp oil, and we have canned soup in the cupboard. For the third time in three weeks, we are ready for a power outage. And, yes, readers, this is getting old.

I love the natural world, and I love living in the woods, but I also love heat and power and movies and other gifts that technology brings. A pioneer woman I am not. As it so happens, I am reading Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser. Let’s just say that Pa and the pioneers were not the exemplary citizens portrayed in the Little House books. For me, this makes Laura Ingalls Wilder’s story richer and more interesting, and I am not bitterly disappointed by these revelations. But I digress, and I will write more about this book in another post.

Back to the weather. In central Maine, the forecast is for twelve to sixteen inches of snow, nothing we can’t handle. The wind is projected to peak at 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 45 mph. This is more worrying as the high winds might cause power outages.

But for now anyway, we are warm and snug. We had our big meal—turkey burritos with corn—at noon, which gave us plenty of time to wash up the dirty dishes. (No power means no water.)

Midafternoon, Clif will go out with Little Green to clear the snow from the driveway, the area around the woodpile, and the paths to the bird feeders. For readers new to this blog, here is a picture of Clif and Little Green from the last storm on Christmas Day. (Little Green is electrically run, so when the power is out, we must shovel by hand.)

Onward ho, Clif and Little Green!

 

47 thoughts on “The Bomb Cyclone Cometh”

    1. Thanks, Judy! And you are so right about New Englanders being able to handle anything as long as the power is on.

  2. Stay cosy and safe Laurie.
    I’m enjoying your pictures, love the snow and the quiet beauty it brings, and I’m happy I don’t have to deal with such extremes.
    I am from farming stock and farmed til 2005 so I know the gutsy spirit that deals with whatever the weather throws at you (I kinda miss it), but we never experienced temperatures as low as yours, or winds as high!

    1. Will do! Glad you are enjoying the pictures. There will be more. We Mainers pride ourselves with the ability to deal with extremes. 😉

    1. Fingers and toes crossed! The way this winter is going, I should just keep them crossed permanently. 😉

      1. Glad you could find “Prairie Fires.” I’m whipping right through it. What a read!

  10. So glad we put in a back up generator about 5 years ago. We’re too old to be hauling water from the creek. 😉 It sure takes a lot of the worry out of these heavy storms.
    I hope your power stays on – be safe and warm!

  11. I agree. If we keep the power we can deal with the clean up in due time, though little green and his guidance engineer may have their work cut out for them tomorrow! Stay warm and, hopefully, with the lights on.

    1. Clif and Little Green were out during the blizzard. We were afraid of an extended power outage and thus much shoveling by hand. But the outage was only two hours. Still, clean-up today won’t be that bad. We just have the wall o’snow to contend with at the end of the driveway.

  12. Oh dear…I guess I’m reading your blog posts in reverse…hope you get the power back soon. Stay safe and warm.

  15. I laughed when I read this as I had posted last night about The Long Winter. I will have to read Prairie Fires also. I agree that words matter and “bomb cyclone” congers up some frightening images in my mind. However; it does help to get rid of the attitude that Mainers are hardy and can drive through anything. I like the attitude that safety is the most important factor. Hope you get back you power soon. You’ve already had more than your share of roughing it this winter.

    1. I am riveted by Prairie Fires, and somehow, reading about the warts of Laura’s family doesn’t bother me at all. It gives them nuance. Some of their troubles were not their fault, but let’s just say that Pa was gullible and made some bad decisions. Moving so many times was not good for the family. And how they struggled! I was completely sympathetic, as I always am when people struggle. There is the issue of lack of honesty, but I will write more about that in an upcoming review.

  16. Two words–backup generator! I think I’ve already carried on about this to you–but, really, it changes one’s whole attitude about storms! I peeked ahead and saw your power did, indeed, go out. I hope it’s back on or that you’re snug and warm, at very least!

    1. We’ve talked about it, but somehow we’re reluctant to do so. In fact, we handle power outages pretty well. We just hate ’em.

    1. Let’s just say things weren’t quite as jolly as portrayed in the show or even in the books. Quite a lot was left out. The dark bits, such as when Pa, Ma, and the family sneaked out of town one night rather than pay several month’s rent. But for me, and I’ll write more about this later, rather than detract from the stories, these episodes add nuance and honesty to the stories. And my sympathies were still with the Ingalls family, even though what they did was not always right.

  19. Would it not be easier for Clif if you just used snow shoes to feed the birds?

    Glad to hear you didn’t suffer too much of a power outage. I do agree there is too much scare-mongering in the papers.

  20. I think the media love to scare-monger! We get this all the time here and people are getting fed up. One day (like in the story of the boy who cried ‘wolf’) we will sneer at the warning and then find we are in trouble! We had a storm which started on Tuesday evening and eventually calmed down on Wednesday afternoon. We had 50 mph winds and very powerful gusts but fortunately no damage at all! We lost our power just after I got up at 6.45 am so the heating had only been on for a quarter of an hour and the house hadn’t warmed up yet! We lit the lamps and a few candles and put the gas fire on in the living room. We have a gas hob so we can at least cook a few things and our water continues to come out of the taps so we were fine. The power came back on four hours later so not too bad at all. Thank-you for the photos of Clif and Little Green – how noble of him to go out in a blizzard! Seeing the amount of snow you have had already makes me understand why you get so much mud in the spring!

    1. Not bad at all. Glad the power was back fairly soon, and having a gas fire that runs independently of electricity is very sensible. Yes, the snow and the cold combine to give us a “delightful” mud season in March, my least favorite month in Maine.

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