Epic, or Epic Fail ? Prepare!

  I have made much talk the past few days over the potential for a big storm at the end of the month. Even speculation a few weeks back at this potential. As of today the potential is there and  increasing with miss potential just as high. Though extremely important to note there is NO imminent threat and still a very good chance this storm slips to the S& E of Southern New England.   So, what is this Storm we are talking about?. Right Now it is Tropical Storm Sandy strengthening that formed on Monday and is currently moving NNE at 20mph and has a Central Barometric Pressure reading of 993Millibars. She is forecasted to continue to strengthen and become a hurricane as early as Wednesday afternoon and continue to travel to the NNE.
 Hurricane Watches and even Warnings are already up for Jamaica , Cuba and Guantanamo.  Sandy is expected to ride up E of Florida and continue on a northerly path for at least a time, then some players come in. Does a front coming in from the Great Lakes hold its ground, speed up, Intensify and kick Sandy completely out to sea well south and east and completely spare us and make many of us look like hypsters trying to instill public panic, when in reality the potential had/has and continues to be very real, or does that front/trough slow or even stall near The Eastern Great Lakes and allow for Sandy to continue to the North, at which point that same trough would become negative tilted and allow Sandy to retrograde back towards the East Coast dangerously close to Southern New England near Halloween? Well that’s what one of our trusted model has been quite consistently leaning towards and an intensity projected capable to match or even exceed that of The  Great 1938 Hurricane. Add to that a  strong negative North Atlantic Oscillation , this will aid in storm development, intensity . There is about 2-3 days at MOST to nail this down, we should know by Thurs pm if this is a miss or that we seriously need to heed the warning our only weather tools are sending us and prepare for something that we knew would come soon or later . Southern New England is certainly NO stranger to considerable effects of Hurricanes. Edna & Carol two weeks apart in 1954, Gloria in 1985, Bob in 1991 and also the Perfect Storm later that year and many less significant so to speak in between.  The are a couple things we do have in our favor to limit intensification though. As always the case further north in latitude is cooler sea surface temperatures and the general fact that cyclones tend to accelerate as they traverse northward . Certainly there is no imminent threat right now, but time is running out while guidance is giving us fair warning of potential. Make the best out of it, prepare regardless, understand that the potential is there for major to extreme damage near Halloween and just as fair game that this thing spares us. Sandy may not even be tropical, she is likely to transition into an extra-tropical storm with lacking warmer features of tropical origin.  That would NOT take away from potential impacts as some models are indicating a VERY low central barometric pressure associated with it if it comes north and that will take hours and hours to uncoil . The storm is expected to be monstrous in size with an extraordinarily large wind field. To sum it up, be prepared that all this could be another highly talked about storm that spares us (not many would complain) or that finally after years of being “overdue” that the big one could hit. Thanks for reading guys !   ~Anthony
Below for weather fanatics is a graphic showing a few of recent model runs and what forecasters are facing among many other factors, teleconnections, Upper level lows placements…ect ect….but hey, its what we live for !