Hello all!

Well, Sandy had a burst of rapid intensification last night, and strengthened to a Cat 3 storm before making landfall across Cuba.  The storm is now over water again as a Cat 2 storm, about to head through the Bahamas.   Due to the large size of Sandy,  tropical storm warnings are in effect along much of the eastern Florida coastline as tropical storm force conditions are likely, especially along the immediate coast overnight tonight through early Saturday morning.  Hurricane warnings are up for the Bahamas, through Saturday morning.

The forecast for Sandy has the hurricane moving parallel to the Southeast Coast and offshore of the Carolinas by Sunday.   

Then Sandy will interact with a strong trough, possibly losing some if not all of its tropical characteristics, and transition into a extra tropical storm, or large Nor’easter. Regardless of classification this system this will be a monster area of low pressure.   Due to a pretty crazy upper level atmospheric steering pattern, we’re expecting the system to back up and push into the East Coast late Sunday.  Some computer models turn the system toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast coastline somewhere between early Monday morning and Tuesday overnight, but this is not a certainty just yet.  

And this would clearly be a very bad case scenario as we could have millions without power, trees down, roads closed etc.   There is also the possibility the storm could still miss the U.S., skirt along the coast, strike Newfoundland or head out to sea.  

Here are the possible impacts to the Midatlantic/East Coast depending on where the storm makes landfall:

A strike to the Mid-Atlantic or Northeast would be similar to a strong Nor’easter with a wide, damaging wind field of 60-80mph that could take down tree limbs still holding their leaves and cause widespread power outages , torrential rain and coastal flooding that would be enhanced by a full moon on Monday.  

We should have a better idea of what Sandy/extra tropical low will do later tomorrow and Saturday, and of course I’ll keep everyone posted as much as possible.   For now, the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast needs to remain alert for a potential significant storm early next week.

More updates as they come in, and you can always visit me on twitter as well @janicedeanfox

Be safe everyone!

JD