The East Coast was hit with up to 2-1/2 feet of snow as part of a “bombogenesis” snowstorm. A bombogenesis is a storm that intensifies rapidly, yielding blizzard-like conditions. In simple terms, bombogenesis describes a storm bursting into existence like a bomb! The term evokes the Jewish reference to Genesis as the heavens and earth burst into existence on the first day. There is another place where there are Jewish references in regard to the weather. The United States has had an offficial system of naming hurricanes since 1953, and more recently major winter storms have been given unofficial names by The Weather Channel. A similar system has been developed under the auspices of the World Meteorological Organization, with countries in close proximity sharing name lists. To this end, last year Israel joined together with Greece and Cyprus to form the East Mediterranean Storm Naming Group, and each country contributed some of the names on the alphabetical list. Greece and Cyprus added such names as Athina, Nikias, and Vion. What are two of the names Israel contributed to the list of potentially devastating Mediterranean weather systems?

The thunder and lightning by Ron Almog is licensed under CC BY 2.0