News - Blogs - How Hurricane Sandy became SuperMegastorm Sandy

How Hurricane Sandy became Super-Megastorm Sandy
Published: 10/30/2012 3:00 PM
Last Modified: 10/30/2012 3:19 PM

This NOAA satellite image taken at 9:45 a.m. CDT Tuesday, shows superstorm Sandy slowly moving westward while weakening across southern Pennsylvania. The National Weather Service said a foot and more of snow was reported in lower elevations of West Virginia, where most towns and roads are. High elevations in the mountains were getting more than two feet and a blizzard warning for more than a dozen counties was in effect until Wednesday afternoon. (AP Photo/NOAA)

Let me point you to one week ago on this very blog. In it, I said there was this plucky little tropical storm south of Jamaica in the Caribbean named Sandy.

Some meteorologists said that it had the real possibility to cross the Caribbean and charge north up the East Coast before it hooked a left, made landfall and caused billions of dollars in damage. Others said it was going to drift out to sea and mostly make life a little rough for some tuna.

Well, by now I think we all know who was right.

Projections are now saying that the total property damage from Sandy and the monster storm she became will exceed $20 billion. If that holds up, it would be the costliest storm since Hurricane Ike in 2008 and could surpass it. (As reference, Katrina caused an estimated $125 billion in damage) As of right now, AP is reporting 38 people have been killed in the United States, adding to the 69 reported dead in the Caribbean.

So, what made Sandy so large and what kept it from drifting out to sea?

By now, I’m sure you’ve read that it was caused when two weather systems -- Sandy and a trough of low pressure moving across the country -- collided and merged into the massive storm that is still bringing rain and winds to the northeast. And maybe you said, “OK, sure. They merged. Cool story, bro. What does that mean?”

Well, watch this. It was created by Ryan Maue of WeatherBELL Analytics, via Slate, Climate Central.

You can clearly see Sandy over the ocean and and the low pressure trough being drawn south and east. And you can see the two swirling around each other, bringing Sandy ashore before combining and moving northeast. That’s known as the Fujiwhara Effect.

But before that actually happened and was a week away, forecasters simply didn't know how all the forces would interact. The European model called it, but most others showed just the opposite. Here is the forecast map from the GFS model at 5 p.m. Oct. 23. Some had it affecting the northeast, but the majority opinion was it would keep making that right turn and leave us alone. It's the same model, just different runs of it with different conditions.

But, that was not the case. It did hook that left and turned into an incredible and remarkable event, and one the northeast will feel for some time. Here is the National Hurricane Center's wind history archive. Notice how massive it was at the end, with tropical storm-force winds from South Carolina to Maine.

Meteorologists and climatologists will be diving into this data for years. The name Sandy will be one that lives for decades, like Andrew and Katrina.

I'll leave you with this. It's always an incredible way to see how the air is moving in this country and even better when significant events are occurring, like Sandy.

--Jerry Wofford, on Twitter @jerrywofford

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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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