And at the other end of the scale the Bureau Of Meteorology now calls all summer days "Sunny", "Mostly Sunny", "Partly Cloudy" or "Cloudy".

Even if the temperature gets into the 40's.

Up until a few years ago, days like this were called "Hot", "Very Hot" and even "Extremely Hot".

I suspect it may have something to do with stupid people blaming the Bureau when they suffer through hot days.

"The Bureau said it was going to be hot. It was hot so it must be their fault". 

A few well known TV news weather presenters also had this same problem years ago.

Many years ago, Adelaide experienced its first "bomb" from the weather bureau. They were forced to explain the term about an extremely cold weather front crossing the gulf off shore.  Their explanation was that they used the term to warn the public about the equivalent force of the front which was equivalent to several atomic bombs because they were fed up with being blamed when one of these fronts occurred and they were ignored and people needed rescuing.  So, obviously their feelings have reached bureau-wide and the term is in general use.  Tsk, tsk, tsk...

bombogenesis

/bɒmbəˈdʒɛnɪsɪs/

noun Meteorology

a phenomenon or process in which there is rapid and sustained falling of barometric pressure in the centre of a low-pressure system, indicative of its strengthening into a powerful storm.


bombogenesis

rapid intensification of a storm caused by a sudden and significant drop in atmospheric pressure : the development or intensification of a bomb cyclone

Baronvonrort wrote on Jul 1^st, 2025 at 5:05pm:


It seems that they always exaggerate in order to prevent potential legal problems.

Back in 2010, here in Perth, we had a very destructive hail storm and we were only given an hour's warning by the BOM.

Buildings and cars all over the metropolitan area were severely damaged, and insurance companies were looking for someone to blame (as usual).

Since then, they seem to predict the end of the world just to be safe.

Carl D wrote on Jul 1^st, 2025 at 5:45pm:


I was the opposite - I was working in the city and living in Joondalup.

I left the office at about 2.30 PM and made it home without any damage to the car.

However, upon opening the front door I was greeted with a house full of collapsed ceilings   

I remember that storm, so do my kids.  Whenever a storm occurs, they say, "not as bad as the big storm!"  I left work at 4pm and had no warning.  I know what hail storms could do, so I pulled under a roadside tree and sheltered there and was saved from gross damage to my car.  On the way home up the freeway took three times as long as usual and I was near Osborne when the lightning struck - scared the crap out of me!  There was one lightning strike just off the freeway near where I was.  I was traveling at about 25km/h, the traffic was nose to tail, I could barely see the rear lights of the car in front of me, the rain was so dense.  My kids were already home from school so were spared the worse, their school wasn't, it ended up being closed for 3 months, lacking a roof. I eventually made it home, I was very thankful to have made it!

The BOM is saying it is not a cyclone or a cyclone bomb. Not sure if that is even a term they use. But there will be strong winds. I think it is too diffuse a weather pattern to be called a cyclone.