[tzakrajs]

What is a Nor'easter?

[chimeracoder]

> What is a Nor'easter?

Literally: a cold hurricane.

Some people misuse the term to mean "a blizzard affecting New England and/or the Northeast", but it actually specifically refers to a storm that's been pushed inland by sea winds coming from the northeast, off the Atlantic Ocean. That specific pattern results in a particularly cold and brutal storm.

Nor'easters are technically cyclones, just like hurricanes, and the two are very similar in many regards. The difference is that a Nor'easter forms further north, in cold water, and it is actually strengthened by cold air, whereas hurricanes form further south and are diminished in strength as they cool off.

https://scijinks.gov/noreaster/

[baq]

Weather nerds will get very confused by ‘a cold hurricane’ since hurricanes are tropical cyclones and tropical cyclones have a warm core by definition.

…but they’ll be fine with a ‘a big cold cyclone’ I guess ;)

[bee_rider]

It’s just a hurricane in the winter, no biggie. We would enjoy the snow and check out the surf (from a safe distance). I think you aren’t officially supposed to suggest the latter though.

[low_common]

I throw on a dry suit and go surfing. It's awesome.

[mrguyorama]

I mean, it really isn't a huge deal, but the nor'easter that just came across us here in southern maine left about 350k people without power in a state of 1.6 million people.

That's not nothing.

[hijinks]

its a lot of warm moisture that comes up the coast from the southeast and slams into cold air from canada and can drop a lot of snow/wind. It can cause bad storms in the ocean and high seas.

[vlan0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_1992_nor%27easter

[streblo]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nor'easter

[renegade-otter]

A lot of cold water and maybe snow.