Hurricane Sandy Could Hammer the East Coast

Weather reports indicate that there’s a chance that hurricane Sandy might trash the East Coast. As Sandy approaches Jamaica, projections suggest that folks in the mid-Atlantic region should at least be paying attention. There’s a chance that emergency conditions could affect the region as early as Sunday. The Red Cross suggested that people being making preliminary preparations, so every Wegmans is already out of milk, bread and batteries. Seriously, though, things could get really rough around these parts by Monday evening.

The ominous forecast by last night’s ECMWF deterministic run places an incredibly strong cyclone off the New Jersey coast on Monday evening… with tropical storm to hurricane force winds covering every state between Virginia and Maine (note that the wind speeds on this map are at 5,000’ altitude, not the surface). A scenario such as this would be devastating: a huge area with destructive winds, extensive inland flooding, possibly heavy snow on the west side, and severe coastal flooding and erosion.[Washington Post]