Thursday, August 27, 2015

A Repeat of Hurricane Sandy?

DON'T PANIC YET! Before everyone freaks out, just remember this is one run of one computer model. Is there a possibility that it would happen...yes. Is that possibility high, not at all!!! 

I found the Canadian model's forecast for current Tropical Storm Erika very interesting. As you can see in the GIF above, tweeted out by Eric Holthaus of Slate, the weather model from our neighbors to the north, takes Erika right up the coast, then a hard left into New Jersey. This is the exact path Hurricane Sandy took in 2012. Its amazing that a path like that would show up on a computer model again. 


Is it possible? Yes. Likely? Not really. Sure the pattern supports blocking to the north, preventing a storm from going out to sea like most do but will Tropical Storm Erika live through the wind shear in the Caribbean or the high mountains of Hispaniola? We'll have to wait to find out. Most models have the storm emerging into the Bahamas by the end of the weekend and giving Florida a close encounter or even a hit (Florida hasn't been hit by a hurricane in 10 years!!!) 

Right now the storm will hopefully give Puerto Rico some beneficial, drought busting rain. For everyone else, its a good time to keep an eye on it but that's it. No panicking just yet! 



Below are images from the Canadian computer model, showing Erika off the coast of North Carolina with a 932 millibar low! That would be an extremely dangerous storm. Below is also an image from the model, showing the storm off the coast of New Jersey by September 4th.  



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