Hurricane Sandy: East Coast Landfall Likely

Hurricane Sandy: Likely To Make Landfall On East Coast Monday Afternoon

By Terry Eliasen, Meteorologist, WBZ-TV Exec. Weather Producer

October 25, 2012 11:06 AM

Here is another link showing the track of the storm barreling across Long Island click here and again on the picture at the link to make the map larger.

Photo Credit  nhc.noaa.gov

BOSTON (CBS) – Some major developments in the past 24 hours with regards to Hurricane Sandy and its eventual track up the Coast…First of all, Sandy strengthened overnight into a category 2 hurricane.

This was significant that it was able to become more powerful while moving over land in the Eastern half of Cuba. As of this morning, Sandy has re-emerged in the Atlantic and has begun the trek through the Bahamas Island chain. Sandy will likely remain a category 2 hurricane today, with sustained winds exceeding 100mph.

Sandy will then parallel the East Coast of the U.S. for the next several days, maintaining hurricane strength, although likely weakening a bit due to cooler ocean waters. Just about every weather model in our arsenal has Sandy in a similar position on Sunday…a few hundred miles off the North Carolina Coastline and this is when things get interesting.

Once Sandy reaches its position off of North Carolina, it will start to feel the effects of several northern latitude atmospheric conditions. A system born in the warm depths of the Tropics will find itself in unfamiliar territory…First, the warm ocean below which served as the engine to get Sandy going and keep it strong will begin to feel a lot different.

Typically a tropical system needs ocean temperatures 80 degrees or higher to sustain itself. The water off of North Carolina is now mainly in the 70s. Cooler ocean water being sucked into a hurricane is like throwing bad gas in a car…it doesn’t run as smoothly and things start to break down.

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