United States

Sandy Wrap-up. Another Storm of Much Lesser Magnitude Coming

October 30, 2012; 8:31 AM

Commentary

1. Sandy is located over south-central Pennsylvania this morning, and the winds are gradually coming down. There are still pockets of heavy rains going around Sandy that may only aggravate the flooding problems. I posted the snow map from the HRRR model, and West Virginia will continue to get hit by snow. Snow will also continue over parts of Ohio.

Sandy really was a hurricane that became embedded into a winter storm and finally just merged in. She was a hurricane all the way to the coast and through southern New Jersey. Why hurricane warnings were never issued for the coasts, I will never understand, but I think the meteorologists from the private sector, TV and local NWS offices did a great job communicating the impacts of Sandy.

Sandy will be a storm that will be used a benchmark for many storms to come. The damage as you see today and the next couple of days will be massive from southern New England to Maryland. The coasts, especially the Jersey shore, took a direct hit by Sandy with storm surges that may have gone a mile inland, depending on location.

All in all, it was a horrible storm.

2. The NAO is still very negative and is predicted to stay negative through mid-November. The next storm coming along will most likely hit the coast and strengthen again due to the negative NAO. Understand, this will not be like a Sandy, but the next storm will bring rain, wind and even some snow, and only cause problems with clean-up efforts. More on the storm the next couple of days, but understand, we have another one coming, but not a big one.

The views expressed are those of the author and not necessarily those of AccuWeather, Inc. or AccuWeather.com