the.com/biblical
the size adjective for disasters too big for ordinary weather reports.
means literally relating to the Bible, but colloquially used to describe anything of overwhelming, apocalyptic scale.
from from late latin biblicus, from biblia, the greek word for books, itself from byblos, the phoenician port that exported papyrus; the word meant simply the books until it became shorthand for plagues, floods, and other events too large to describe normally.
first senseoriginally just meant of or relating to books
hyperbole shiftpopularized as intensifier by 20th century news media
most cited plaguelocusts appear in exodus and modern headlines alike
weather usefloods and droughts get called biblical almost automatically
for instance
noah's flood — genesis 6-9, the original biblical-scale disaster
pharaoh's plagues — exodus 7-12, ten disasters in escalating order
hurricane katrina coverage — 2005 news reports called flooding biblical repeatedly