Hi Sandy!

Hurricane Sandy, that is, who was at 85 mph at the 8 pm advisory but appears to be strengthening rapidly. Could be a major hurricane before it slams into eastern Cuba later tonight.

Computer models are now indicating this could turn curve back into the Northeast coast either as a sub-tropical storm or a nor'easter this weekend or Monday, and some bloggers are using the words "Perfect Storm". Could be a total mess in a few days.

 

Some computer models have it making a direct hit on Connecticut, almost one year to the day when a freak nor'easter knocked out power to nearly a million people.

I actually went to a business meeting today where the head of the big utility talked about their lessons learned from last year-we'll see

 

So we'll see. Hard to believe it could cause more damage than the freak snowstorm last Halloween weekend where we lost power for four days. But I suppose I could be wrong, unfortunately.

 

Pretty late in the year for a major hurricane. Lived on the gulf coast for a long time and the latest one I can remember was the first week of October.

Blame global warming! (Unless, of course, we can find a way to blame Bush.)

 

Hurricanes suck, but they have given us some of best thread titles in SJ history. This one included.

 

The local forecaster said it was likely not going to be a hurricane, but its going to run into an arctic cold front and become a monster hybrid storm.

Last hurricane to have a direct impact here was Gloria back in 1985.

 

Bravo on the thread title. Pure genius.

 

The season typically lasts till Nov. 30, so not really.

 

Yes, really. Majors are pretty rare after Oct. 15, and when they happen it's usually where this one is, the northwest Caribbean. The Atlantic waters generally aren't warm enough to support them and by this point in the season, the upper-level winds preclude major development/maintenance in the Gulf, except for possibly the extreme southeast part (Wilma).

The latest major hurricane to hit the U.S., interestingly enough, was Oct. 25, 1921, in Tampa. This won't be a major if it hits the U.S. and probably won't be fully tropical, but will very likely be a massive pain in the ass. Does The Weather Channel break out the winter storm names for this?

 

Hey smilin' strange
You're lookin' happily deranged
Could you settle to shoot me?
Or have you picked your target yet?

 

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/#

This is pretty damn cool.