This is Sandy
The forecasted track, as of 11 am Thursday.
Here's the situation: There's a hurricane in the Caribbean -- Hurricane Sandy -- and, at the moment, the forecasted track of the storm including hitting the northeastern United State sometime next Tuesday. By that point, according to forecasts, Sandy would be a tropical storm.
Yeah, that sounds like uncomfortably like Irene.
From the NWS weather discussion for this area, which notes there's still "considerable uncertainty" about the path of the storm:
The bottom line from looking at all suites of guidance is that some atypical storm system is most likely to impact a large area of the Northeast U.S. early next week...with the most likely time for greatest effects to be Monday and/or Tuesday...with lingering effects possibly into Wed or Thu.
For our region...it appears that a potentially prolonged heavy rain event could evolve during the mon-wed time frame...although exact amts...and areas of most intense rain remain uncertain. A period of strong winds also appears increasingly likely...with the greatest threat across higher elevations...although valley areas certainly will not be exempt from a significant wind threat either...depending on the eventual track/evolution of the storm system.
Colder air may eventually wrap into the storm/s circulation at some point later next week...so some snow or snow showers can not be ruled out in portions of the region by next Wed.
In other words: right now, it's looking like there could be heavy rain Monday into Wednesday, with strong wind. And depending how temperatures go, that rain could turn into snow.
So, that would make it... a snowicane? A tropical snow storm? Whatever it's called... eek.
By the way: While a storm like this would be unusual for this area, the end of October is still considered the peak of hurricane season in the Atlantic.
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Comments
The nice folks at Gawker believe that there is no time to learn new words with this impending snowpocalypse so we should just refer to it as the "Snowcone".
I, for one, welcome our Wampa overlords.
... said ned on Oct 25, 2012 at 12:32 PM | link
Edit: While a storm like this used to be unusual for this area, thanks to climate change they appear to be showing up on a regular basis.
Drill, baby, drill!
... said Code Monkey on Oct 25, 2012 at 2:52 PM | link
The National Weather Service has dubbed in the "Frankenstorm".
http://www.hpc.ncep.noaa.gov/discussions/hpcdiscussions.php?disc=pmdepd
... said ned on Oct 25, 2012 at 3:18 PM | link
@ned: Even better, the National Weather Service takes the time to carefully explain, in almost scientific terms, that the "ghoulish nickname" of Frankenstorm is "an allusion to Mary Shelley's gothic creature of synthesized elements." Ya gotta love those meteorologists.
... said Bob on Oct 25, 2012 at 5:01 PM | link
A sloppy snowstorm with snow piling on trees with leaves is a recipe for massive power outages and property damage. I remember 1987.
... said chrisck on Oct 25, 2012 at 5:14 PM | link