Hurricane Sandy downgraded to Post Tropical Cyclone

  • Central
Predicted track that Hurricane Sandy will take Credit: ITV Central

At this moment Sandy is heading inland, it’s currently 120 miles E/SE of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

The system continues to run NW'wards across Pennsylvania - then it's due to travel north through parts of Ontario & Quebec - of course Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa fall into those areas so they and the Great Lakes will be affected. Sandy is due to cross the US/Canadian border tomorrow evening, our time.

We have some monstrously impressive statistics from the peak of when the storm hit:

  • The highest wind gusts were recorded in Islip, New York 90mph.

  • Record storm surge – 14ft waves – 10/11foot was predicted.

  • Sandy gave nearly 10 inches of rain in parts of Virginia and there has been 26 inches of snow in Maryland already.

The simple story about the snow is that warm, moist tropical air from the Caribbean is now coming up against very cold air from Canada - these two air masses should never meet, but they are doing and that's where the snow is coming from. Winds are now 45mph - that's sustained wind speeds. To put it into perspective, we usually can have gusts of 45mph in this country on a windy day - but those are gusts, rather than sustained speeds. Still some decent rain on the system, 1-2 inches of rain forecast for tomorrow across the Great Lakes. How long before it burns itself out?This is difficult to say - it's downgraded from a Hurricane to Post Tropical Cyclone in just 12 hours and now it's not over the sea all the warm air should be losing its intensity, so hopefully it will be losing its impetus before long. Will it reach us? It's not expected to reach us. There are gales in the long range forecast but from a different source. The size of high pressure over Greenland should protect us. The high is the reason why Sandy is pushing back westwards now. Even if it were to change track, by the time it reached the UK it would just be a 'normal' autumnal low."