How To Survive a Bomb Cyclone

Winter is tightening its icy talons on the U.S. east coast this week, with one of the most rapidly intensifying storms on record— memorably described as a “bomb cyclone”—that is bringing snow to Florida, possible blizzard conditions from the coastal Mid-Atlantic up to New England, and misery to humanity in general. “In the storm’s wake,” the Washington Post warns, “the mother lode of numbing cold will crash south.”

This is not a prospect to be welcomed. Extreme frigidity is a joyless and lethal kind of weather emergency. It is cruel to the un-housed and elderly, dangerous to first-responders, and hard on civic infrastructure. (On the other hand: Ice fishermen are happy.)