re: #304 funky chicken

Sure.

A hurricane normally leaves after a dozen hours or so. This storm is expected to have an extended duration of 12-24 hours or more with tropical storm or higher winds. The size of the storm is even more impressive than other recent hurricanes. It might not have a classic hurricane shape at this point, but the storm extends for hundreds of miles in all directions; it puts 1/3 of the nation at risk by size (and 60+ million people are likely to be directly impacted). It’s extending tropical storm force winds 500+ miles from the center. That’s huge.

The problem with this storm is that it’s going to hook to the West along the Jersey Shore in a way that brings the worst of the storm surge to the NYC metro area directly. The geography means that the surge will be funneled into NY Harbor - causing the potential for record/near-record flooding.

Add to that a cold front and secondary low coming in from Canada that will transfer/add to the energy from Sandy along the coast - which is part of the reason for the hook to the West (the other reason being a blocking High in the North Atlantic that is helping to prevent the storm from kicking out to sea).

The storm has already killed 65 people, most of them in Haiti, thus far.

Oh, while the rain is expected to be significant, because of the cold front associated with the system coming in from the West, there are parts of West Virginia, VA, and PA that are likely to see significant snowfall.