News - Blogs - Forecast for Hurricane Sandy more concerning but uncertainty remains

Forecast for Hurricane Sandy more concerning, but uncertainty remains
Published: 10/25/2012 5:06 PM
Last Modified: 10/25/2012 5:06 PM

Sandy's forecast as of 4 p.m. Thursday

OK, I think people along the East Coast can start freaking out now.

Maybe not freaking out and starting a run on the grocery store, but they should be alert and aware of Hurricane Sandy and the potential disaster it may cause.

On Tuesday, I wrote about Sandy when she was just a wee little tropical storm more than 250 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica. Now, it’s a sprawling Category 2 hurricane in the Bahamas and is officially a deadly storm, having caused the death of four people so far.

Monday, people had started talking about how this could be a monster for the East Coast in about a week and a half, and I said hold your horses. Now, actual forecasters with the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center are calling it “Frankenstorm.” Because what deadly situation isn’t better with a cute, catchy nickname?

Now that we’re a little nearer the event and the models have had time to think, it’s looking more and more like Sandy could have a severe impact to the East Coast.

What forecasters are most concerned about and leading them to the wonderful term Frankenstorm is what other weather phenomena could interact with Sandy to make it bigger, faster, stronger.

The cold front that blew through the Tulsa area today (it was a wild one) would interact with Sandy about the time a blast of dry artic air meets with Sandy Tuesday morning over the New York and New Jersey area.

“And if they meet Tuesday morning around New York or New Jersey, as forecasters predict, they could create a big wet mess that settles over the nation's most heavily populated corridor and reaches as far inland as Ohio,” the Associated Press reports.

Again, the Capital Weather Gang blog at the Washington Post has a nice round-up of information that would make this storm so powerful and unique.

It will be interesting to see what happens with the storm over the next few days as it gets closer to land. Panic? No. Be concerned and aware? Now’s a good time.

Back here in the landlocked prairie, you should just worry about freezes.

--Jerry Wofford

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

Weather World

Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

>> Visit the main weather page
>> Send us your weather photos
>> Meet the forecasters

Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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