Physical Analysis of Hurricane Sandy

Tuesday October 30^th super storm Sandy reached land and made its path of destruction across parts on New England the Appalachia and other parts of the Northeast.  Sandy downgraded from a Hurricane just before landfall and left millions without power at least 51 dead and causing over 20 billion dollars in damage.  Sandy won’t be forgotten for a long time because of its strength and unusual mix of weather conditions that it brought across the Eastern Seaboard.   Here are some of the latest record breaking statistics

The storm pressure of this storm is the second highest to ever make landfall. With a reading in just south of Atlantic, New Jersey was 946mb at landfall. In general the lower the mb, the stronger the storm. The lowest central storm pressure was recorded in the New England area was the Long Island Express Hurricane in 1938 with a storm pressure of 941mb.  Records were broken in many different metropolitan areas such as Philadelphia, PA and Baltimore, MD.

Wind gusts that developed with this storm were already strong days before it hammered the coast. Twenty four hours before reaching landfall areas along the East Coast recorded hurricane force winds of over 90 miles per hour in New York and New Jersey and they were felt well into the interior parts of the New England region.

Super storm Sandy might have hit New York and New Jersey the hardest but, rain fell the hardest southwest of New Jersey.  Sandy dumped more than 8 inches of rain as its winds pelted the cost in Maryland, Delaware and southeastern Virginia. Sandy broke multiple daily rainfall records including all three D.C. area airports.  Accuweather has a good list of the highest recorded rainfalls from this storm and Easton MD recorded the highest at 12.55 inches in a little over 48 hours.

One of the last major aspects of this unique storm was the snow. Sandy’s unusual development as tropical storm merging with a winter cold front brought high elevations of snowfall. Redhouse, MD measured an impressive 28 inches topping the list for the greatest accumulations amount the eight states that saw measurable snow  West Virginia is also a notable state reaching over 28 inches in some areas and snow is still continuing to fall at this point. Sandy dropped enormous amounts of snow for this time of the year and six states received over one foot of snow in areas. Sandy has left a memory engrained in the lives of people all over the county, leaving us to pick up after its destructive force.

10/31 Washington Post