Low Pressures Within Sandy

Barometer from Delaware (11:00 p.m.EST on 10/29/12)

The center of Hurricane Sandy made landfall along the New Jersey shore late Monday evening.  The center of the storm then moved closer to the state of Delaware by late Monday night.  The picture above shows the lowest reading from Felton, DE at around 11:00pm EST Monday night.  The pressure reads 952 mb or 28.1 inches of mercury. This is quite a low reading for a storm impacting the Eastern seaboard.  This Chelsea barometer would be mainly used on a sailing ship, but with it almost bottoming out with this large storm, the makers don't expect sailors to head into such a deep low pressure system while at sea.

October Lunar Halo

Anybody see the nice lunar halo around the moon on Monday night?  It was a sight to see!  It happens when you have cirrus (high) clouds in the place and is a result of the moonlight reflecting/refracting off the ice crystals from the cloud...sometimes tough to get a good picture of, here's a shot from the Quad Cities late Monday night.

Time Lapse of Hurricane Sandy hitting New York City

                 


I first saw this video on the WREX Weather Blog out of Rockford...and kudos to whoever made the video!

Latest on Sandy

Here's the latest Sandy SAT/RAD picture as of Monday evening...the storm packs winds of 90 mph and is now moving WNW at 28 mph.  For the latest advisories from the National Hurricane Center Click Here

Thoughts and prayers to all those affected along the East Coast, it could be a very long 48-72 hours...and even longer with no electricity.

Impacts from Sandy

Residents in Rehoboth Beach, DE watching the high surf. (Courtesy of Carolyn Patton)

As Sandy gets closer to making land-fall, high surf, heavy rain and high winds are impacting a very large area along the Mid-Atlantic coast  Rehoboth Beach in Delaware is already seeing impacts with large surf and dangerous rip currents.  Storm surge along the Delmarva coast can be 4-6 feet, mainly during high tides.  Further north, along the NY, MA, RI, and CT coast, storm surges can reach up to 11 feet, prompting evacuations in NYC's flood prone areas.  Impacts from Sandy will even be felt here in the QCA with a breezy winds expected on Tuesday afternoon.

Sandy's Impact....

 

 

Here is a map of most weather advisories, watches, and warnings that have been issued due to Sandy! Everything from Hurricane Warnings, to High Wind Warnings, Flood Advisories, and even Blizzard Warnings! IMPRESSIVE to say the least! Even Chicago is under a High Wind Watch because of Sandy!

Sandy & the Heavy Rainfall Threat....

As of Sunday afternoon, Sandy was still a category one hurricane with winds of 75 mph.  Even though Sandy is only a category one, she is still a very powerful storm due to simply her SIZE! Below are rainfall forecasts for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.  Some areas could pick up close if not more than 10 inches of rain when all is said and done!

Sandy is now forecasted to be a hurricane through late Monday.  Latest model forecasts have Sandy making landfall late Monday night into early Tuesday. That's when she will make landfall over Delaware and New Jersey.

Watching Sandy's Forecasted Path...

Sandy will keep an area of high pressure from moving out of our region over the next several days here in the Quad Cities.  But, for the East Coast, Sandy means heavy rain, damaging winds, flooding, and heavy snow.

Stormcast (as of Saturday afternoon) shows the area of high pressure just hanging out over the Midwest while Sandy churns her way northward along the Eastern Seaboard. 

Right now, forecasters are expecting Sandy to go from a Hurricane into an extratropical system by the end of the weekend. 

Stormcast is forecasting Sandy to make landfall as an extratropical system sometime on Monday over the Mid-Atlantic states.  We'll keep you posted.

With Sandy in Mind, National Weather Service Launching Extra Weather Balloons

 With the threat of a catastrophically huge storm looming (Sandy) the National Weather Service is doing all it can to come up with the most accurate forecast possible, including launching extra weather balloons through the lower 48 states.  The Quad Cities local office is now launching 4 weather balloons per day instead of the normal 2.  These instruments collect data such as temperature, humidity, wind speed etc all the way up to about 90,000 feet in the atmosphere!  The data collected is sent by a radio signal back to the office, and eventually ends up being digested and used in many ways to help with the forecast. 

 In the QC, meteorologists will be sending up the extra balloons through Monday morning while folks in the East and South will continue the extra balloons through Tuesday, when Sandy is expected to make landfall somewhere along the East Coast!  Here are some pics from today's launch around lunchtime! 

See the doppler radar in this shot!

1 Hour Temperature Drop

It was pretty easy to tell when the cold front slammed through the area earlier today...whether it was from 12 to 1pm or 1 to 2pm temperatures crashed all across the area today!  In the QC we saw 19° drop from 1 to 2pm as the temp fell from 72° to 53°!  Since then the temps have fallen even further, back into the lower 40s so far!  Here's a list of 1 hour temp drops from the NWS in Davenport...Click Here