Bombogenesis of northeast winter storm on February 13, 2017.This water vapor imagery from GOES-16 shows the intensification of the winter storm that brought heavy snow to Maine and other areas of the Northeast yesterday, February 13, 2017.According to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center, as the yesterday's winter storm in the Northeast moved off the coast and over the northwestern Atlantic, its surface pressure dropped from 996 hectopascals (hPA) at 11:00 am yesterday to 972 hPA at 10:30 pm, a drop of 24 hPA in 18.5 hours. (Note: A hectopascal (hPA) is a unit of pressure equal to a millibar.)This rapid drop in barometric pressure is what meteorologists sometimes refer to as a "bomb," a term the NOAA Glossary defines as "the rapid intensification of a cyclone (aka: low pressure system) wherein the surface pressure falls by at least 24 millibars in a 24 hour period." (The term "bombogenesis" -- a combination of "bomb" and "cyclogenesis" -- which means the development of a cyclonic circulation) -- is sometimes used to describe these types of systems.Credit: NOAA/NASANote: This is preliminary, non-operational data as GOES-16 undergoes on-orbit testing.