It’s Alive!! #FrankenStorm to Smash EVERYTHING.
Hurricane Sandy, which is now plowing through the Caribbean, is set to join forces with a storm system emerging from the Midwest. This could create a hybrid storm that could re-energize Sandy after it makes landfall, just when a typical hurricane would lose steam. Scientific American explains that it will also likely meet “a ridge of high pressure extending through the atmosphere above the northeastern Atlantic Ocean and Greenland.” And thus, the #FranckenStorm. Here’s Climate Central on how the beast rises:
Some energy will still come from the ocean surface, but some will now come from the pole-to-equator temperature contrast. This new energy source will enable Sandy to maintain its intensity, or maybe even increase it. This process is called ‘extratropical transition.’ It poses a lot of problems for forecasters. In the first place, the computer models aren’t that great at predicting exactly when it will happen. So predictions of intensity are uncertain, as the tropical cyclone may weaken before transition and then strengthen afterwards.
The media is going nuts again, but so are the forecasters. The Capital Weather Gang at the Washington Postopens its take bluntly: “Analyses suggest this storm may be unlike anything the region has ever experienced.”
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration explains that “MODELS SHOW PRESSURE WELL BEYOND WHAT HAS EVER BEEN OBSERVED NEAR THE NJ/NY COAST.” Yes, they go all-caps. It’s just what they do.
For an idea of how some meteorologists feel about all of this, here’s direct quote from a National Weather Service forecaster: “I’ve never seen anything like this and I’m at a loss for expletives to describe what this storm could do.”//Really wasn’t that bad in Miami.
