One For The Books

Hurricane Sandy WILL BE the 77th named storm to be retired and rightly so.  As I sit here and type this, 150-200 miles to my east is an area completely ravaged by what nature can do in simply a few hours.  I've always been fascinated by man's futile attempt to control the weather, although some minimal accomplishments can be claimed in wx modification exercises such as fog dissapation and snowfall enhance, both while "seeding" already precipitable clouds!  Years ago when I saw man trying to burn fires on the oceans to try to disrupt hurricanes was analogous to extinguish a raging forest fire with ONE bucket of water.  Yesterday, the coastline from the Delmarva up through southern New England experienced just what an angry ocean can AND WILL do when coming onto the land.  Although it is not yet daylight in NYC, Long Island, and the NJ coast, once the sun rises, the devastation will be duly noted.  And I might add, quickly forgotten by most...unfortunately.  The fact that many lives were not lost is simply due to the fact the ample warning was issued to vacate harms way.  If the advice was not heeded, well, I hate to sound so cold, but it's nobody's fault but their own...(I'd usually put in a Led Zep video here...).  Sorry I digress....but I did pull it up and listen to it.  I saw many pictures from last evening when lower Manhattan recorded its highest surge of 13.88'; smashing the previous height of the water by over 2'!  Wow!  Flooded streets were common up to Canal Street.

Here is the water gushing into the WTC site...

I will suggest to y'all that you peruse electronic media, magazines, newspapers, etc...for all of the data on this truly historic storm!  That is not the purpose here; however, I will say this.  Hurricane Sandy most definitely will re-write this wx history books.   The Great Hurricane of 1893 actually removed and forever changed the south coast of Long Island.  Hog Island was literally washed away.  Gone!  Poof!  This hurricane made landfall on August 23, 1893 and did so at what is now the location of JFK Airport. A direct slam into NYC!  Again, lower Manhattan was flooded up to Canal Street. It is believed that because the flooding occurred during low tide, the situation was not worse.  Hog Island itself WAS about a mile long of the coast of the Rockaways.

The Long Island Express (Hurricane of 1938) was a Cat 5 in the open ocean and made landfall out on the eastern part of LI as a Cat 3.  Manhattan flooded again, shorelines were rearranged...but a storm talked about by the old-timers still to this day!  As will Sandy!

Last night, I recorded the lowest pressure ever at my home at 28.18" of Hg or 961 mb!  Look at what the barograph did in Walker Bldg; the home of the PSU wx station.  That drop of pressure is simply incredible...

So where is Sandy now?  Here is the latest surface map...as of 5 am Tuesday...

And a close-up of the NE...note Reading and Lancaster and KMDT are missing...I'm guessing a power issue?  However, Sandy will move the WNW today and allow for some rather chilly air to be drawn down towards us.  Today will not be a nice day as temps will remain in the 40s with still some rather gusty winds, but the worst is by far past us as this monstrous cyclone fills.

Here is the initialization (NAM) of Sandy's locale early this morning....note how the cold air has now completely wrapped around what was the "warm core" of tropical Sandy...the lower left panel shows wind, the top right left panel shows surface pressures and temps one mile up....the right 2 are for precip....

And Sandy will move slowly WNW for its location later tonight...

This storm had a SIX standard deviation from "normal" as viewed from the 500 mb level?  What does that look like?  Well, here you go...deep trough over the eastern US and a huge "block" over the N Atlantic!  A perfect meteorological set-up for a storm of this magnitude....

Note how far south the jet stream is!  Unreal for this time of year!

OK...that is all for now.  Yes people, you lived through history!  Over-hyped?  I DON'T THINK SO!  Talk with anyone who has coastal interests from the Delmarva north to southern NE.  My thoughts and prayers are with those who have suffered heartache due to this awesome display of nature.  But hopefully this did not result in any bodily injury; merely loss of property.  Again, ample warning was given...get out!  Although this might appear callus, all indications were that this storm meant business.   And once daylight dawns, we will truly see the magnitude of the destruction Sandy dealt to the coastal communities to our east.  I'll leave y'all with this...

I hope all is well as can be with everyone reading this.....!

Smitty

AA:  One for the record books!  I hope you didn't lose power...or if you did, you get it back quickly...