With the “Bomb Cyclone” hitting the eastern seaboard, there’s one thing that can be predicted with a good degree of certainty: the secondary effects of the winter weather are highly likely to negatively impact the internet usage of the areas most heavily affected, as well as ecommerce sales originating from those areas for internet retailers.
Bomb Cyclone simulation satellite pics by Ryan Maue of weather.us.
What typically can happen is this:
- The intense weather storm powered by the bomb cyclone (under the process dubbed “bombogenesis“) is already propelling extreme weather elements from over the Atlantic into the northeast towards the interior of the United States. These elements include snow, flooding, freezing temperatures, and high winds.
- The cold storm elements will knock out core infrastructure and utilities in various areas.
- Electric power will be knocked-out when ice causes tree limbs to break, snapping electric lines. CNN is already reporting that over 13,000 homes have lost power in the northeast.
- Internet cables can also be disabled when utility lines are snapped, cutting off access for homes and businesses alike. For some areas, the internet services will get knocked-out simply if they themselves lose power.
- Although typically a little less vulnerable to outages, cell phone towers can also get knocked offline. If you’re in an area with fewer backup towers to pick up your signal, and your cell towers are taken offline, you may get cut off from communications and internet.
- Outages of these sorts can last for days and even for a week or longer, depending on the severity of the storm and how easy it is for utility crews to reach affected areas.
