This is an unusual event: when meteorologists say this is a ‘historic’ storm and a combination of events which will accelerate the storm in its last stages into a sharp turn, and drive the central pressure below the 955 MB it was last night. Pressure difference means serious wind, and it is well possible it will come in not as a tropical storm but re-accelerated. Several things are exacerbating this: the energy in the nor’easter, the fact it’s a high tide, and the angle at which it will come in. Exacerbating the potential for damage: trees are still in full leaf, which, sail-like, increases the surface exposed to the wind, ergo the strain on the tree, and falling trees will bring down electric power. This is not only bigger than Irene, it’s got those several complicating factors which put this into territory the scientists say they haven’t seen before. Here’s a technical explanation from two days ago of WHY the cold of northern waters isn’t causing the storm to peter out: note that it’s already sunk below that record pressure cited in the article.Technicals on Sandy
Please, if you’re in that region, err on the side of caution.
Here a little north of NYC we have some windy gusts that are helping the leaves depart the branches but no rain yet. Everyone expects to lose power. I keep hoping that all the storms over the last three years have already knocked down most of the likely trees, but I am sure that is naive. We have two huge sweet gums right next to the house, which means they wont build up much force before they hit, if they are blown over, but they are right outside my daughter’s bedroom, so we will have her sleep in our room tonight. If the subways in the city are flooded I may be working from home for quite a while-the water is already surging nearly above the sea walls in lower manhattan.
The more leaves shed, the better for the trees—fingers crossed.
The water level at the Battery peaked at 13.87 feet – and it got into the subways. I saw a short but spectacular video of a ConEd facility blowing up, and a photo of a PATH station in Hoboken flooding via an elevator shaft, both over at Jeff Masters’s blog at Wunderground, where this has been followed very closely.
Darn, darn, darn. They tried hard to prevent that. It’s going to be quite a lot of pumping and repair before things normalize, then: salt water is a pita when it gets where it doesn’t belong.
We have wind and little rain. The latest weather info says the worst will be this afternoon. We don’t worry about water damage as we live about five miles inland on top of the highest hill around. The shore is different, storm surge is expected to be big due to high tide and full moon. Narragansett Bay is expected to get the worst of it. We have mandatory evacuations, which should be a no-brainer, but you would, or probably not, be amazed at what people think is safe. As for us, we have the Aladdin Lamps, many little battery lights, batteries for the radio, water on hand. But we can always throw a bucket down the well if it gets that bad. Our house was built to category three hurricane standards so we are safe. The word is TAKE CARE!
Power flickered several times last night – for no apparent reason, as the wind and rain were quite mild – but then stayed on. Heavy rain now, and I can sometimes hear the wind indoors as well. I’ve put the heat up a couple of degrees to warm the house ahead of any power loss: we have 1920s-era hot water heat (radiators), but the thermostat and switching system are modern and electrical.
The forecast period for fierce storm activity is shorter than it was yesterday: they’re now talking about having the worst over by Tuesday morning in this area. (Before, tropical storm badness was supposed to occur on Monday *and* Tuesday.)
It’s gathered speed. It is again officially a hurricane. And unfortunately the reaction of some people to an event like this is denial until it scares them, and then they yell for some poor rescue guys to come get them. I firmly agree with not letting the rescue guys respond past a certain point, until after this dies down. Here’s hoping everybody hunkers down safely over the next 12 hours.
Lots of rain, but not much wind here in VA, power still on. Forecast has the highest winds still to come, so we’re not done yet. Hope everyone stays safe.
Central MD has had a lot of rain – we have many puddles, and the wind has been building all afternoon. At this time it’s really getting windy – sounds like we just had a gust of around 30 knots. So far, the power is still on. This is something like a minor miracle in this neighborhood; we lose power regularly for no apparent reason. One major blip around 11 a.m., then a few minor flickers since. Actually got a full day’s work in.
They’re saying landfall around Cape May in about an hour – I’m keeping my fingers crossed that maybe we dodged the bullet this time (knocks on wood).
Supposedly the height of the storm in the Boston area was at about 7:00 pm eastern time. It’s now 9:00pm and I guess the wind is a bit better but it’s now raining harder.
Weeble, I just talked to my Mom in southern New Hampshire (Barrington next to Rochester): she says the winds have died down there and it is quiet. She hadn’t heard from my aunt and uncle more on the water of a relatively protected bay there to know how they are faring.
Power has only flickered a bit so I had a nice day working on my novel. I ought to go and start working on my art history class lecture but instead I am puttering. Oddly, it has been a quiet “day outside of time.” I think on a variety of levels both my day job and evening college were right to cancel things: the winds have been pretty fierce.
Here’s hoping everything is hanging together for folks on the New York to Maryland coast!
p.s. I think it’s what you grew up with: tornados sound totally terrifying. Hurricanes I can do, major snow storms even more so.
It’s 11:00pm now and the rain and wind have both died down for the moment. A good time to go to bed.
Hoping the wildest part is over.
A lot of nature’s little tizzies are beneficial or at least minor damage. I’ve twice had to fight a range fire, and I’ve been in tornadoes (at least enough to have my ears hurt like blazes), earthquake that cracked our living room right across, some pretty good snow and ice storms, but floods and hurricanes are just altogether impressive.
Tornadoes always scared me more because they sneaked up on you; a hurricane gives you plenty of warning and time to run away. The scary hurricanes are the ones that spawn tornadoes, which Sandy hasn’t, thank heaven. Like Raesean says, I think its what you grew up with. That’s “normal”, whatever it was. Still haven’t lost the lights. Truly amazing. Still windy but not as much as it was.