I’m close enough to the action here in DE and have been out and around enough today to believe it really isn’t a hurricane, and now I have found the explanation.http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/national-hurricane-center-no-a/839301
“The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issues advisories, forecasts, and warnings on tropical cyclones - the generic term for hurricanes, tropical storms, and tropical depressions. Sometime prior to making landfall, Hurricane Sandy is expected to lose its characteristics as a tropical cyclone and take on the structure of a wintertime low-pressure area. Because the National Hurricane Center only issues advisories on tropical cyclones, there will be changes in the flow of information coming out of the NWS when this transition occurs.”
It is official now. According to Fox. No longer a Hurricane. And since it has combined with the cold storm that was west of Sandy, it no longer has a true eye, so they have backed off on calling landfall. My guess is this has not been a hurricane for the past 24 hours. There is no way Sandy maintained sustained winds of exactly 75 mph for a day and a half. That surface wind speed is just an approximation based on the upper wind speeds measured by the search planes. In the reality of nature, there had to be some fluctuations if the sustained winds of 75 mph were accurately measured directly. They keep the sustained wind speed 2 mph above tropical storm level at exactly 75 mph for at least a day and a half. It probably strengthened a little when it went over the Gulf Stream, but 90 MPH sustained is just impossible in a hurricane that was getting its western side ripped clean by the cold front.