Giant Hurricane Sandy

Looks like it'll miss Georgia for the most part. To all the Orbinauts farther up the East Coast, good luck and stay safe up there.
 
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Nothing can really prepare you for what is going to come there, that is a 1500 km storm, that wants to have a cold rendezvous with a cold front. Even if the winds will not be the worst kind of Hurricane, a simple tropical storm of such dimensions will be bad. That it moves so slowly is also bad for the people below it.

Be prepared for what you can be prepared, especially make sure you have enough food and uncontaminated water for the next days. While there will be an abundance of rain, it likely won't be nice for cooking. And be prepared for some days without electricity. It sounds like there might be really a good reason to assume, that electricity can fail for a while in some places.
 
Good luck people, best thing to do seems to avoid unnecessary trips, stay at home and get informed about the local emergency facilities.
 
ATCF files say 80kts, or 90mph now. Recon found 100mph surface winds, somewhat suspect due to flight level winds, so they've subtracted 5mph from the intensity. I use the ATCF so I can skip the public info and go straight into the technical aspects.
AL, 18, 2012102912, , BEST, 0, 367N, 709W, 80, 946, HU

AL = Atlantic.
18 = Sandy, 18th named storm of the season.
BEST = Best track
367N = Latitude.
709W = Longitude
80 = 80kts, the NHC will round with 90mph, just below Category 2 status (they don't use 95mph, as 85kts is Category 2, so if it gets any stronger, the NHC will round to 100mph)
946 = Minimum pressure in millibars.
HU = Hurricane.

Recon just pegged an insane pressure of 942mb, unheard of at that latitude.
 
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Urwumpe said:
Nothing can really prepare you for what is going to come there, that is a 1500 km storm, that wants to have a cold rendezvous with a cold front. .
Click to expand...

Indeed. Some are predicting heavy snowfall with major accumulations as cold air wraps into the storm (West Virginia and Virginia are under blizzard warnings).
 
Urwumpe said:
Nothing can really prepare you for what is going to come there, that is a 1500 km storm, that wants to have a cold rendezvous with a cold front. Even if the winds will not be the worst kind of Hurricane, a simple tropical storm of such dimensions will be bad. That it moves so slowly is also bad for the people below it.

Be prepared for what you can be prepared, especially make sure you have enough food and uncontaminated water for the next days. While there will be an abundance of rain, it likely won't be nice for cooking. And be prepared for some days without electricity. It sounds like there might be really a good reason to assume, that electricity can fail for a while in some places.
Click to expand...

That is a bang-on assessment and excellent advice. I'm well prepared and hunkered down waiting for this thing to hit. I am located in Brantford in SW Ontario which is right between the part of Ontario expected to get the worst rain (Saint Thomas near London) and the part expected to get the worst winds (Hamilton). I am fully expecting to lose power sometime tonight. I don't own a generator but I do own several high capacity power packs that will enable me to have several days worth of power for radios, computer, etc. I also have a propane stove with plenty of fuel and lots of non-perishable food items.

---------- Post added at 10:08 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:07 AM ----------
n122vu said:
Indeed. Some are predicting heavy snowfall with major accumulations as cold air wraps into the storm (West Virginia and Virginia are under blizzard warnings).
Click to expand...

Same thing up here. They are calling for 100mm of rain - can you imagine how much snow that would translate into if the temps drop low enough?

---------- Post added at 10:09 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:08 AM ----------
Urwumpe said:
The reconstruction of the HMS Bounty is in distress because of Sandy, the crew already left the ship. It is the ship that had been build for the 1960s movie of the same name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounty_(1960_ship)
Click to expand...

Apparently is has now sunk and the crew is being rescued by US coast guard off Cape Hatteras.
 
I'm curious why the HMS Bounty got into trouble. Didn't they know that there is a big storm underway for days?
 
FADEC said:
I'm curious why the HMS Bounty got into trouble. Didn't they know that there is a big storm underway for days?
Click to expand...

Media reports that they had departed Halifax for Florida and apparently the captain thought he could sail around the storm. Not sure what possessed him to try to sail around 1,500 km wide storm though.
 
Mantis said:
Media reports that they had departed Halifax for Florida and apparently the captain thought he could sail around the storm. Not sure what possessed him to try to sail around 1,500 km wide storm though.
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Indeed.

I wasn't aboard so I can't really form an opinion. But if I consider the storm as a laymen it seems like recklessness.

I would say good buy (i.e. not enter) to any ship along the east coast currently :nono:
 
FADEC said:
I'm curious why the HMS Bounty got into trouble. Didn't they know that there is a big storm underway for days?
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The problem is, that such a ship can't travel anywhere it wants. It depends on the wind and such a hurricane is well, a lot of wind. Also, such a ship is only slightly faster than the hurricane at optimal wind. You can't just deploy all sails and then reach hurricane wind speeds as a ship, the ship would collapse at such forces. The storm rigging for such a ship is best described visually as a few hankerchiefs hanging on the deck. Minimal surface, close to the deck.

I suspect the ship started the planned travel when Sandy was still far away from the Caribbean.

EDIT:

Since it started in Connecticut last weeks, according to n122vu's unformation, the ship most likely tried to use the rather favorable north winds to get past the hurricane, before it gets too close to the coast. Staying in Connecticut would likely have destroyed the ship in port.


Look for example here:

ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/pub/hwi...12/1029/1330/AL182012_1029_1330_contour08.png

Look at the fate of the Pamir there, a German sailing ship that also got lost in a Hurricane. While the poor cargo handling was the main cause of the loss, the ship also had problems getting distance to a known hurricane. It was lost in similar conditions as the Bounty.

EDIT2: The region in which the Bounty was lost, is called "The Graveyard of the Atlantic", and that for a good reason.
 
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FADEC said:
I'm curious why the HMS Bounty got into trouble. Didn't they know that there is a big storm underway for days?
Click to expand...

"The director of the HMS Bounty Organization, Tracie Simonin, said that the tall ship left Connecticut last week for St. Petersburg, Fla. The crew had been in constant contact with the National Hurricane Center and tried to go around the storm, she said."
 
Well, I got the day off work/school, and the power is still on. So far, so good.

Hopefully those two storms that rolled through here(Baltimore) in the summer that left me without power for a week and a half during a heat wave already exposed all the weak points in the grid, and they have been hardened this time around.
 
I've dived many shipwrecks off of North Carolina, it's called "The Graveyard of the Atlantic" and the wrecks certainly aren't limited to sailing vessels.

As to why Bounty would leave port, a ship tied up at a dock in a hurricane can be smashed to pieces. Taking it out to see to evade the worst part of the storm is a common practice. Looks like Bounty went the wrong direction. I hope they find the lost crewmen.
 
Conditions are beginning to deteriorate here. Winds have picked up significantly over the past hour. Rain remains light but is is being driven by the wind and radar shows the first band of intense rain is heading in this direction. Most recent prediction is that conditions will start to get really serious at around 5PM eastern today and that the storm will reach it's greatest intensity here at around 10PM. NO evacuation orders or anything are in place....officials are advising people to hunker down in their own homes and to be prepared with 72 hour disaster kits in anticipation of power outages.
 
AF Dropsonde recorded 99mph winds at the surface in the eyewall of Sandy.

---------- Post added at 05:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:55 PM ----------

Respect. This picture was taken in September, however they're still out there to this hour in this hurricane, standing guard.
550473_10151135181229576_1477360736_n.jpg
 
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