WASHINGTON — When it comes to weather, it’s hard to sound scarier than “bomb cyclone.”

It’s a version of a real weather term that applies to a massive winter storm that pulled together Wednesday off the U.S. Southeast coast. But as fearsome as the storm is with high winds and some snow, it may not be quite as explosive as the term sounds.

Meteorologists have used the term “bomb” for storms for decades, based on a strict definition, said University of Oklahoma meteorology professor Jason Furtado.

After it showed it showed up in a Washington Post story on Tuesday, the weather geek term took on a life of its own on social media. The same thing happened four years ago with “polar vortex,” another long-used weather term that was little known to the public until then.

“Bombogenesis is the technical term. Bomb cyclone is a shortened version of it, better for social media,” said Weather. US meteorologist Ryan Maue, who helped popularize polar vortex in 2014.

“The actual impacts aren’t going to be a bomb at all,” Maue said. “There’s nothing exploding or detonating.”

Storm intensity is measured by central pressure — the lower the pressure, the stronger. A storm is considered a “bomb” when the pressure drops rapidly — at least 24 millibars in 24 hours.

This storm looks like it will intensify at twice that rate, said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center.

So far, the storm has dumped freak snow on the Southeast. It’s aiming for the Northeast, where the snow forecast for Thursday isn’t that big a deal, Furtado and others said. The worst of this storm will stay out to sea. What is going to be bigger is the high winds — gusts exceeding 60 mph — and the bitter cold that follows, they said.

Bomb cyclones draw air from polar regions after they leave. In this case, it means extra cold Arctic air because of where the polar vortex is, Furtado said.

Worldwide, about 40 to 50 “bomb cyclones” brew each year, but most are over open ocean and nobody but weather geeks notice, Maue said.

“We use the term bomb,” Furtado said. “We know what it means, but I do think it gets a little hyped up.”

AccuWeather uses the term “bombogenesis.”

The term bombogenesis comes from the merging of two words: bomb and cyclogenesis. All storms are cyclones, and genesis means the creation or beginning. In this case, bomb refers to explosive development. Altogether the term means explosive storm strengthening.

In simple terms, bombogenesis is a storm that undergoes rapid strengthening. The vast majority of such storms occur over the ocean. The storm can be tropical or nontropical in nature.

A cyclone (nontropical storm or hurricane) is essentially a giant rising column of air that spins counterclockwise over the Northern Hemisphere.

When air rises, it produces a vacuum effect that results in lower atmospheric pressure.

When a storm strengthens, the column of air rises at a faster and faster rate and the pressure within the storm lowers.

For example, a weak storm that began with a barometric pressure of 29.98 inches and ended up with a barometric pressure of 29.27 inches in 24 hours underwent bombogenesis.

Average storms in the winter have a low barometric pressure reading of 29.53 inches of mercury, according to Accuweather.

The Superstorm of 1993 (Storm of the Century) from March 12-13 is a prime example of a storm that underwent bombogenesis. The storm strengthened from 29.41 inches (996 MB) to 28.45 inches (963 MB), or nearly 1 inch (33 MB), in 24 hours. Much of this strengthening occurred over land.

Some of the most intense storms may have the barometric pressure below 29.00 inches.

Other examples of storms that underwent bombogenesis are Hurricane Charley in 2004 and Hurricane Wilma in 2005. The Blizzard of 2015 (Jan. 26-27), the Bering Sea storm of December 2015 and the northeastern United States storm of late-October 2017 experienced bombogenesis.

As a result, some, but not all nor’easters may undergo bombogenesis.

The intense winds often create massive seas and may cause significant beach erosion.

In terms of precipitation, very heavy rain and/or snow may fall in the path of the storm undergoing bombogenesis.

Precipitation rate is produced from the rising column of air. When air rises, it cools and moisture condenses to form clouds and rain or snow. The faster the air rises and cools, the heavier the precipitation.