All About Hurricane Sandy and What is to Come

Let’s look at how Hurricane  Sandy developed between last Sunday evening and Tuesday morning… On Sunday evening, Hurricane Sandy was described as having a warm core. All of the thunderstorms pump up and produce a lot of heat On land, there was a cold front coming east bound. On Monday morning, Sandy was still warm cored and moving north with the cold air continuing to surge east. It was even itself getting a separate low pressure center. On Monday evening, the interaction between Sandy and counterclockwise winds started to pull cold air all the way off to the coast. Winds from the cold air system started to move from east to west with the cold air about to wrap around Sandy. This moved the storm west bound creating a strong left turn in its path. Here was the transition from a warm cored storm to a cold cored storm occurred. On Tuesday, Sandy became a superstorm surrounded on the east side with the cold air wrapped around it. Waters off shore of New England are pretty cool so no tornadoes presented themselves throughout the course of the storm.

Climate change has been discussed as a potential cause of Hurricane Sandy. Strange weather patterns over the past several years as well as severe storms where they have not normall occurred have lead people to believe that climate change is an issue. In October, a survey found that 74% of Americans believe global warming is affecting the weather in the US .  The past is no longer a good guide to the future in terms of climate change. The issue can no longer be ignored.

Sandy was a hurricane embedded within a Nor’easter. Nor’easters typically occur in the north east of the US. They move in north easterly directions and wind blows from the north east. There is a Nor’easter forecasted for late Wednesday to into Thursday. Snow is forecasted as well as precipitation and cooler temperatures. It is predicted to reach down to parts of Maryland as well as the DC area. This will bring a lot of cold air, but is it enough for snow? Another factor that needs to be considered is moisture. Precipitation is predicted to be heavier along the coast with snow potentially higher in the overlap areas of heavy precipitation and cool air.