Hurricane Sandy (LIVE THREAD)

NOAA/NHC & Various ^ | 10/25/2012 | NOAA/NHC & Various

[NautiNurse]

Late season Hurricane Sandy churning poleward off the Eastern U.S. coast.

Sea Surface Temps

Public Advisories

NHC Tropical Discussions

Satellite Images

Buoy Data: Current Observations

[jester221]

This site is very informative - you can even plug in your lat and long to get custom alerts specific to your local. Free 14 day subscription enough to see this storm through:

http://www.stormpulse.com/

I understand a moat surrounded (but did not penetrate) my current house during the halloween (perfect) storm of 1991. Hope this is no repeat - what is it about halloween?

[NautiNurse]

Never underestimate wind turbulence and uplift, which causes building failure. Board up those broken windows. If there are a lot of trees in close proximity to your home, board up your intact windows too.

[Severa]

Checking in from southern MD. Looks like the track is still pushing north a tad but we're still looking at getting quite a wallop from this storm. We lucked out EXTREMELY well during Irene last year (didn't even lose power) but I'm not so sure this time around. Local school district is saying they'll make an announcement between 1-3 pm about tomorrow's school day. Either way we're stocked up, huddled down and waiting to see what this storm brings us.

Thank you so much NautiNurse and everyone else who works hard to put up these hurricane threads!

[Josephat]

Pray and trust God. Maybe the power will only go out in blue areas! God works in mysterious ways and all things are possible.

[PapaNew]

Oh, so you're in PA. Pray that God will move that high pressure out of the way so this thing will go east...

Here's what I've gather so far...

As mentioned, it looks like Sandy will be a tropical storm by the time it reaches mid-PA (approx. 50 mph). Looks like it will have this "Nor'easter" effect because the winds, going counterclockwise, will pick up colder air from the northeast and pull it down on the west side of the storm (PA) making it a cold and wet "tropical" storm.

Looks like PA also at the same time gets hit with this other northwest cold front storm. Not sure of the exact effects of this convergence but it seems like it would be more cold and snow than flooding. Not sure what the wind effect would be.

BTW, here's a link to a pretty good real-time view of the hurricane and its projected path.

http://www.weather.com/weather/hurricanecentral/tracker/2012/chris

Praying for you.

[Pharmboy]

Getting quite breezy around Bethesda, MD.

[catnipman]

Looks like PA, NJ, & MD gonna be right in the cross-hairs. Given that so many Pubs are broken-glassers and so many Dims are slackers, any impact on voting efficiency would most likely be detrimental to Obozo. Might be the difference in PA, particularly as Philadelphia looks like it’s gonna take it on the chin.

[RegulatorCountry]

Not to sound alarmist but that sounds like the “snow bomb” nor’easter that stalled out over southeastern North Carolina in late January, 2000. It started spinning up over land in the vicinity of Ft. bragg, even had an eye. Very unusual, snowfall amounts were impressive. I’m nearly 200 miles away and got a foot. Some areas were over two feet, heavy wet snow, roofs were collapsing.

[steve86]

Direct wind pressure (even exclusive of turbulence, lift, and torsional effects) gets formidible for higher category hurricanes as you well know. But at 75 MPH the pressure is still under 20 lbs/sq ft. Gusts can take the wind speed 50% above that, where the pressure will DOUBLE. For those areas that get say only 60 MPH gusts from this there will be only minor wind damage to structures (but possibility of many power lines down).

Figure 8
Velocity pressure as a function of wind speed
(From ASCE, 1990)

Wind Speed 75 95 110 130 155 180 200
(mph)

Velocity 19.0 30.6 41.0 57.2 81.3 109.7 135.0
Pressure
(psf)

[janipa]

Thanks.

[Caipirabob]

When we got hit by Wilma in 2005, we had the exposed windows boarded up but not the side windows.

At some point, a shingle got propelled with enough force to penetrated a side window, facing a wall not 10 feet away. The force of the impact shredded the aluminum holding the glass and shattered the glass. This was a fairly protected area so the force of the gust had to exceed the average cat 1 winds. We suspect microtornadoes, as almost everyone in the neighborhood had their roofs destroyed.

We had additional plywood and nails in the hallway and sealed the breach, but it took 4 people to hold the wood in place with the pressure blowing into the house. 10 minutes later we sealed it,but it was a near thing.

Later we heard a terrible sound in the garage. Despite backing our cars up to brace the garage door, padded with old blankets to protect the cars, there were sections of the garage door being depressed inward with each large gust of wind.

It was breaking apart the drywall ceiling in the garage into sections along the edges of the drywall with each gust. The sound was the drywall ceiling lifting and falling as the unbraced segments of the garage door pressed inward. If we had not braced the aged door with our cars, it was likely the thing would have collapsed. We replaced it after the storm with a rated door.

[matt04]

I live in CT. I am watching and making some final preparations. I was over a friend house and they had on TV on The Weather Channel and one on local news. Couldn’t stand it.

[NautiNurse]

I rest my case. Thanks for sharing your experience. Glad you brought up tornadoes. Haven’t heard the threat level yet for twisters with this storm system.

[NautiNurse]

I was over a friend house and they had on TV on The Weather Channel and one on local news. Couldn’t stand it.

I hear you. When I've tuned into FNC the past few days, all of the crew are wide-eyed like deer-in-the-headlights. They all live in the NY metro area, and are truly frightened. Not very reassuring for the viewing audience.

[gleeaikin]

I too have friends in Chincoteague, so sigh with relief as I see the predicted landfall move up the Jersey coast. Here is a recent link on the storm:

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/sandy-hurricane-east-coast-nyc-forecast-142549538.html, and one on the election impact:

http://news.yahoo.com/big-storm-scrambles-presidential-race-schedules-125105426—election.html

[Gabz]

I just posted this to my Facebook page:

Let’s see.........Jim Cantore is still in NYC and Al Roker has left Rehoboth Beach, Delaware -— doesn’t that mean we’re actually safe here on DelMarVa?????

[dirtboy]

It truly is a strange event when the Northeast Freepers are getting ready for a hurricane while the Florida Freepers look on in morbid fascination. It’s usually the other way around.

[Abigail Adams]

Will the storm close down the NY stock exchange?

[Severa]

Let’s see.........Jim Cantore is still in NYC and Al Roker has left Rehoboth Beach, Delaware -— doesn’t that mean we’re actually safe here on DelMarVa?????

*snort* I like the way you think. Ugly dreary day so far in southern MD. Stocked up and waiting for this storm (whatever it may be) to hit.

[Gabz]

Couldn’t help myself! It’s now raining pretty steady , and the wind is pretty steady at about 25 - fortunately we are protected from the worst of it by woods. There was a good bit of flooding this morning at high tide, and tonight’s high tide is expected to be a bit worse. The high tides tomorrow are the ones everyone is concerned about.