But it’s not really a tropical system...it’s a subtropical system that’s interacting with the gulf stream....if it had time, it might get tropical, but it probably won’t.
Non-tropical systems can wreak havoc, produce gale and hurricane type winds (ask New Englanders about this)...but they aren’t driven exactly the same way as tropical storms.
Even though they aren’t tropical, they can really, really put the hurt on the coastal areas, especially with beach erosion.
There’s a wiki about these types of storms:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subtropical_cyclone