No, it’s been used before. The winter of 1978 comes to mind.
1978 was called a white hurricane. Bomb cyclone appears to have been invented about 2018. It was defined as the drop in some number of millibars. Basically a strong nor’easter. Back on 2013 they tried to sell “explosive cyclones” but it never caught on. Nevertheless the search for a good new fear mongering buzz phrase is ongoing.
Yep. Nothing new. Bastardi talked about the origins of the term a while back.
I was living in Massachusetts then, and we just called it The Blizzard of ‘78.