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Antarctic Ice Rift Growing, Satellite Images Show

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A massive crack in Pine Island Glacier as seen in a Sept. 14, 2012 satellite image. Credit: NASA Earth Observatory

The giant fissure that was discovered last year in Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier widened and lengthened in recent months, new satellite images show.

The 18-mile-long rift foretells the start of a giant iceberg, and researchers have been monitoring the glacier since the fissure was discovered in 2011. The giant fissure was stable for several months, but in May it spawned a second crack.

Ultimately, the berg that breaks off from the glacier could span 350 square miles (900 square km).

NASA scientists flying over Pine Island Glacier in a DC-8 airplane as part of their IceBridge mission first spotted the massive crack in the ice shelf on Oct. 14, 2011. The ice shelf extends into the Amundsen Sea, where ocean water melts it from below.

Pine Island Glacier birthed large icebergs in 2001 and 2007, but the 2011 NASA IceBridge survey marked the first time a major ice breakup was measured from the air.

This week NASA's IceBridge mission plans to return to Pine Island Glacier, weather permitting, to monitor the changes to the glacier and the process of the breakup. The scientists are halfway through their 2012 Antarctic campaign.

Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

Video: Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier Is Rifting
Images: NASA's IceBridge in Action Over Antarctica
Video: Watch the Birth of an Antarctic Iceberg

Copyright 2012 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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Shark Falls from Sky onto Golf Course?

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A leopard shark like the one seen here is thought to have fallen from the sky in California. Credit: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic | Upsilon Andromedae

At the San Juan Hills Golf Club in southern California, course hazards include sand traps and falling sharks.

Or they did on Monday (Oct. 22) afternoon, when a 2-foot-long, live leopard shark apparently plummeted from the sky and landed very close to the 12th tee box at the San Juan Capistrano, Calif., course.

The writhing fish out of water was discovered by an on-duty course marshal, who acted fast to save the shark, according to the Capistrano Dispatch.

He loaded it onto his golf cart and drove it back to the clubhouse, where other employees joined the cause to save the wayward animal. After briefly placing the shark in a bucket of homemade salt water, cart attendant Bryan Stizer used his break to drive the shark to the Pacific Ocean, about 4 miles away.

"I thought he was dead," Stizer told the Dispatch. "When I dropped him into the water, he just lied there for a few seconds, but then he did a twist and shot off into the water."

The shark, which reportedly had two bleeding wounds near its dorsal fin, is thought to have been dropped over the golf course by a predatory bird, though no one is known to have actually seen the shark fall.

Julianne Steers, chief aquarist at the Ocean Institute near the golf course, told the Dispatch that there are ospreys and peregrine falcons in the area that could have snatched the shark from shallow waters before losing hold of it.

Fish falling from the sky is not an unheard-of phenomenon. The downpours of fish and frogs reported throughout history and around the world have been attributed to strong winds that pick up aquatic animals and deposit them many miles inland.

Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries. We're also on Facebook & Google+.

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Copyright 2012 Lifes Little Mysteries, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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Eastern Utilities Brace for Expected Super Storm

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New York City (Thinkstock)

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - Utilities and governments along the East Coast are working to head off long-term power failures as forecasters predict a major storm to hit a region already skittish after foul weather in recent months that plunged residents into darkness for weeks.

Power companies from the Southeast to New England are telling independent contractors to be ready to help fix storm damage quickly and are asking employees to cancel vacations and work longer hours.

"Although we are not certain the storm will impact the state, we need to be prepared," Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said. "That means everyone, especially the state's utility companies."

Federal and private weather forecasters say there is a good chance much of the coast will get hit with gale-force winds, heavy rain, flooding and maybe even snow early next week through Halloween on Wednesday. Hurricane Sandy, now in the Caribbean, is expected merge with a winter storm and a blast of arctic air, creating what forecasters are branding a "Frankenstorm."

Several storms in the region cut power off for extended periods in the past year or so, including Tropical Storms Irene and Lee in the summer of 2011, a freak Halloween snowstorm last year and violent weather in the mid-Atlantic region in June this year.

Connecticut was among the hardest-hit states last year when Irene and the snowstorm knocked out power to more than 800,000 homes and businesses in the state. Some were without electricity for more than a week after both storms.

State regulators harshly criticized Connecticut Light & Power for a "deficient and inadequate" response. The company's president, Jeffrey Butler, resigned in November.

The company, which serves more than 1 million customers in the state, has worked to improve communications with city officials and between company crews and out-of-state workers, CL&P spokesman Mitch Gross said.

The company has already put independent contractors on notice to be prepared next week, and had already increased its tree-trimming budget this year to try to prevent outages as snow-laden limbs crash onto power lines.

Jeff Zizka, 61, of Windham, retired in 2006 after 38 years as a lineman with CL&P. He is planning to have plenty of drinking water on hand, as well as gas for his generator.

"Thank God I'm retired," he said. "Everything sounds like it's going to be pretty bad."

In New Jersey, where the storm is expected to come ashore, Jersey Central Power & Light has told employees to be prepared for extended shifts. The utility was criticized for its response to Irene.

In Massachusetts, Gov. Deval Patrick has given utilities until Friday to submit plans for the storm. When asked during Thursday on WTKK-FM whether utilities would be ready, Patrick responded, "They'd better be."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday noted some uncertainty in the forecasts and said the city was striking a tone of calm preparedness.

"What we are doing is we are taking the kind of precautions you should expect us to do, and I don't think anyone should panic," Bloomberg said. The city has opened an emergency situation room and activated its coastal storm plan.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. is putting workers on standby and making plans to bring in crews from other states. So is PPL Corp. in Pennsylvania. In western Maryland, Potomac Edison is denying new vacation requests until storm repairs are made.

 

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Why Aren't the Presidential Candidates Discussing Climate Change?

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As the clock ticks down on the 2012 presidential campaign, neither President Obama nor challenger Mitt Romney is hitting the stump to discuss climate change. What's more, the issue wasn't raised by moderators in any of three presidential debates.

So what gives?

According to The New York Times, there's little for either politician to gain by raising the issue:

Any serious effort to address climate change will require a transformation of the nation's system for producing and consuming energy and will, at least in the medium term, mean higher prices for fuel and electricity. Powerful incumbent industries - coal, oil, utilities - are threatened by such changes and have mounted a well-financed long-term campaign to sow doubt about climate change. The Koch brothers and others in the oil industry have underwritten advertising campaigns and grass-roots efforts to support like-minded candidates. And the Republican Party has essentially declared climate change a nonproblem.

The two most effective ways of reducing global warming pollution - taxing it or regulating it - are politically toxic in a year when economic problems are paramount. After a bill died in the Senate in 2010, Mr. Obama abandoned his support for cap and trade, a market-based method to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and he has given little hint of what regulatory policies he intends to pursue if he wins a second term. Aides said that he would not propose a carbon tax or other energy tax, but that he would consider supporting one as part of a larger budget and spending deal.

 

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Historic 'Frankenstorm' Threatens East Coast

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Updated Oct. 26, 2012, 5:37 p.m. EDT

Early in the morning on Oct. 25, the Suomi NPP satellite caught this image of Hurricane Sandy after it made landfall in Cuba. (NOAA/NASA)

WASHINGTON (AP) - When Hurricane Sandy becomes a hybrid weather monster some call "Frankenstorm" it will smack the East Coast harder and wider than last year's damaging Irene, forecasters said Friday.

The brunt of the weather mayhem will be concentrated where the hurricane comes ashore early Tuesday, but there will be hundreds of miles of steady, strong and damaging winds and rain for the entire Eastern region for several days, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

RELATED ON SKYE: Sandy Leaves Bahamas After Killing 40 in Caribbean

The hurricane has killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean, and just left the Bahamas. It is expected to move north, just off the Eastern Seaboard.

As of Friday morning, federal forecasters were looking closer at the Delaware shore as the spot it will turn inland and merge with a wintry storm front. But there is a lot of room for error in the forecast and the storm could turn into shore closer to New York and New Jersey and bring the worst weather there.

RELATED ON SKYE: Funny Tweets About Not-so-Funny Frankenstorm
Wherever Sandy comes ashore will get 10 inches of rain and extreme storm surges, Louis Uccellini, NOAA's environmental prediction director, said in a Friday news conference. Other areas not directly on Sandy's entry path will still get 4 to 8 inches of rain, maybe more, he said. Up to 2 feet of snow should fall on West Virginia, with lighter snow in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania, regardless of where Sandy first hits.

A wide swath of the East, measuring several hundreds of miles, will get persistent gale-force winds in the 50 mph area, with some areas closer to storm landfall getting closer to 70 mph, said James Franklin, forecast chief for the National Hurricane Center.

"It's going to be a long-lasting event, two to three days of impact for a lot of people," Franklin said. "Wind damage, widespread power outages, heavy rainfall, inland flooding and somebody is going to get a significant surge event."

That storm surge will only be magnified by the full moon this weekend to make it a "dangerous period," Uccellini said.

Last year's Hurricane Irene was a minimal hurricane that caused widespread damage as it moved north along the coast after making landfall in North Carolina. With catastrophic inland flooding in New Jersey, Massachusetts and Vermont, federal officials say Irene caused $15.8 billion in damage.

SEE ON SKYE: Photos of Hurricane Sandy Striking the Caribbean
Sandy is "looking like a very serious storm that could be historic," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground. "Mother Nature is not saying, 'Trick or treat.' It's just going to give tricks."

Government forecasters said there is a 90 percent chance - up from 60 percent two days earlier - that the East will get pounded.

Utilities are lining up out-of-state work crews and canceling employees' days off to deal with expected power outages. From county disaster chiefs to the federal government, emergency officials are warning the public to be prepared. And President Barack Obama was briefed aboard Air Force One.

Boat owners were yanking their vessels out of the water Friday at the Southside Marina in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J., about 60 miles south of New York City.

"We're taking them out as fast as we can," said marina employee Jim Martin.

Atlantic City's casinos made contingency plans in case they have to close, as they did for three days last year when Tropical Storm Irene approached.

Eastern states that saw outages that lasted for days after last year's freak Halloween snowstorm and Hurricane Irene are already pressuring power companies to be more ready this time.

Asked if he expected utilities to be more prepared, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick responded: "They'd better be."

Jersey Central Power & Light, which was criticized for its response to Irene, notified employees to be ready for extended shifts. In Pennsylvania, PPL Corp. spokesman Michael Wood said, "We're in a much better place this year."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on Thursday said the city was striking a tone of calm preparedness.

"What we are doing is we are taking the kind of precautions you should expect us to do, and I don't think anyone should panic," Bloomberg said. The city has opened an emergency situation room and activated its coastal storm plan.

Sandy was expected to deal only a glancing blow to North Carolina's Outer Banks, where Lori Hilby said she planned to ride out this storm at home, unlike past storms such as Irene. Hilby, the manager at Tommy's Natural Foods Market and Wine Emporium in Duck, N.C., said the shop would remain open throughout the storm. She said she sold a fair amount of beer and wine to people who planned to ride out the storm on the barrier island.

"I'll never evacuate again," Hilby said. She said most of the power lines there are underground, so the power often stays on even during powerful storms.

"Whenever I evacuate, I always end up somewhere and they lose power and my house is fine. So I'm always wishing I was home instead of at somebody else's house with no power."

There are still plenty of stores open in Duck, and Halloween decorations and displays were still on houses despite the rain that started to roll in Friday. Few homes were boarded up.

Some have compared the tempest to the so-called Perfect Storm that struck off the coast of New England in 1991, but that one hit a less populated area. Nor is this one like last year's Halloween storm, which was merely an early snowfall.

"The Perfect Storm only did $200 million of damage and I'm thinking a billion" this time, Masters said. "Yeah, it will be worse."


PHOTOS ON SKYE: Epic Storm Photos from the Twittersphere

 

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Sandy Leaves Caribbean After Killing at Least 43 People

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Updated Saturday, Oct. 27, 10:05 a.m. ET

Locals walk across the flooded streets of La Plaine, Haiti, Thursday after Hurricane Sandy caused flooding and claimed at least 26 lives. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald, Carl Juste)

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) - Hurricane Sandy is swirling off toward the U.S. East Coast, leaving the Caribbean to mourn the storm-related deaths of at least 43 people and clean up wrecked homes, felled power lines and fallen tree branches.

While Jamaica, Cuba and the Bahamas took direct hits from the storm, the majority of deaths and most extensive damage was in impoverished Haiti, where it has rained almost non-stop since Tuesday.

The death toll in Haiti stood at 29 late Friday, but officials worried that the number could rise as searches continued in the country's ramshackle housing and denuded hillsides that are especially vulnerable to flooding when rains come.

Officials were concerned about a continuing rise in a river in the northern part of the capital, Port-au-Prince. People living nearby in mud-splattered, makeshift settlements kept a wary eye on the rush of muddy water.

"If the river busts its banks, it's going to create a lot of problems. It might kill a lot of people," said 51-year-old Seroine Pierre. "If death comes, we'll accept it. We're suffering, we're hungry, and we're just going to die hungry."

SEE ON SKYE: Photos of Hurricane Sandy Striking the Caribbean
Officials reported flooding across Haiti, where 370,000 people are still living in flimsy shelters as a result of the devastating 2010 earthquake. Nearly 17,800 people had to move to 131 temporary shelters, the Civil Protection Office said.

Among those hoping for a dry place to stay was 35-year-old Iliodor Derisma in Port-au-Prince, who said the storm had caused a lot of anguish.

"It's wet all my clothes, and all the children aren't living well," he said. "We're hungry. We haven't received any food. If we had a shelter, that would be nice."

Officials at a morgue in the western town of Grand Goave said a mudslide crashed through a wooden home Thursday, killing 40-year-old Jacqueline Tatille and her four children, ranging in ages from 5 to 17.

"If the rain continues, for sure we'll have more people die," morgue deputy Joseph Franck Laporte said. "The earth cannot hold the rain."

On Friday, President Michel Martelly and Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe handed out water bottles to dozens of people in a Port-au-Prince neighborhood. They also distributed money to local officials to help clean up the damage.

Sandy left dozens of families homeless across Jamaica when it barreled across the island Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane. One man was crushed to death by a boulder that tumbled into his house.

The storm then gained strength and hit eastern Cuba as a Category 2 hurricane early Thursday. Eleven people died in Santiago and Guantanamo provinces as wind and rain tore into thousands of homes. Authorities said it was Cuba's deadliest storm since July 2005, when Category 5 Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people and caused $2.4 billion in damage.

Official news media said the storm caused 5,000 houses to at least partially collapse while 30,000 others lost roofs. Banana, coffee, bean and sugar crops were damaged.

The storm then churned into the Bahamas archipelago, toppling light posts, flooding roads and ripping down tree branches. Police said the British CEO of an investment bank died when he fell from his roof in upscale Lyford Cay late Thursday while trying to repair a window shutter. Officials at Deltec Bank & Trust identified him as Timothy Fraser-Smith, who became CEO in 2000.

Government officials in the Bahamas said the storm appeared to inflict the greatest damage on Cat Island, which took a direct hit, and Exuma.

"I hope that's it for the year," said Veronica Marshall, a 73-year-old hotel owner in Great Exuma. "I thought we would be going into the night, but around 3 o'clock it all died down. I was very happy about that."

On Long Island, farmers lost most of their crops and several roofs were torn off, legislator Loretta Butler-Turner said. The island was without power and many residents did not have access to fresh water, she said.

Power also was out on Acklins Island and most roads there were flooded, while the lone school on Ragged Island in the southern Bahamas was flooded.

In Puerto Rico, police said a man in his 50s died Friday in the southern town of Juana Diaz, swept away in a river swollen by rain from Sandy's outer bands. Flooding forced at least 100 families in southwestern Puerto Rico to seek shelter.

Authorities in the Dominican Republic evacuated more than 18,100 people after the storm destroyed several bridges and isolated at least 130 communities. Heavy rains and wind also damaged an estimated 3,500 homes.

PHOTOS ON SKYE: Epic Storm Photos from the Twittersphere

 

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Soggy Jamaica Cleaning Up After Sandy

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KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - Work crews in soaked Jamaica cleared debris and downed power lines left in Hurricane Sandy's wake while trying to restore electricity to more than half of the Caribbean country Thursday.

Curfews were lifted and international airports reopened under cloudy skies, which unleashed occasional downpours. People in hard-hit shantytowns struggled to repair battered homes after sheet metal roofs blew off.

RELATED ON SKYE: Historic 'Frankenstorm' Threatens East Coast

Authorities said Sandy didn't cause as much damage as they initially feared when it crossed the island Wednesday as a Category 1 hurricane. Still, the full extent of damage was unknown in Jamaica, where some major roads were still impassable. It would likely be days before life in many residential areas returned to normal.

Sandy was blamed for the death of an elderly man in Jamaica who was crushed by a boulder. In Haiti, officials said there were nine deaths, including a man and two women who died while trying to cross storm-swollen rivers in southwestern Haiti.

In Jamaica, about 70 percent of the island lost power during the storm and many towns and cities were left without water service. Schools in the capital of Kingston and eastern parishes were closed until next week.

SEE ON SKYE: Photos of Hurricane Sandy Striking the Caribbean
The Caribbean Hotel & Tourism Association said resorts in Montego Bay and Negril sustained no major damage. North coast cruise ship terminals reopened to vessels.

In the impoverished Kingston community of Maverley, Eliter Barkley swept up tree branches, leaves and pieces of metal roofing scattered outside the tiny rum bar where she and her relatives spent Wednesday night after Sandy destroyed their shack.

Barkley said she and her sister were trying to calm their terrified children when Sandy ripped most of the corrugated metal off their small home's roof shortly after it made landfall with sustained winds of 80 mph about five miles east of Kingston. Minutes later, a tree fell on part of the house, sending the entire family screaming into the street.

"The front and the side got mashed up good. We just ran here in the storm all wet," Barkley said outside the Uptown Inn bar, where about a dozen adults and children huddled together until morning.

RELATED ON SKYE: 22 Killed in Caribbean

In Haiti's capital of Port-au-Prince, where many people still live in tents and other temporary shelters since losing their homes in the country's devastating 2010 earthquake, entire streets gave way to rushing waters. Many people carried belongings on their heads and in suitcases.

Rose Ducast, a 28-year-old mother of three, said she would stay in her tarp-constructed home despite offers from foreign aid groups for shelter. The structure was leaking Thursday and her belongings were wet, but she said evacuation shelters were "unlivable."

It was wet and uncomfortable for Mariefrance Augustin, a resident of the Cite Soleil shantytown, where Sandy caused flooding just as Tropical Storm Isaac did when it passed over southern Haiti two months ago.

"Everything I own is wet and in the mud," said Augustin, a 32-year-old unemployed mother of a 3 year old.

In Jamaica, all of St. Thomas, Portland and St. Ann parishes in eastern Jamaica lost power during the storm, said Winsome Callum, spokeswoman for the islands' electricity provider, Jamaica Public Service Ltd. Numerous customers in Kingston, St. Andrew and St. Catherine also lost service.

The storm's aftermath may be most difficult for the island's farmers. The agriculture ministry said early reports estimate more than half the island's banana sector was damaged.

After an aerial survey of lush Portland parish, Parliament member Daryl Vaz said there was extensive roof damage to hundreds of buildings and the rural area's cultivated fields were devastated.

"There is no banana tree standing and all crops have been wiped out," Vaz said, adding that the government should declare the rural eastern parish a disaster area.


PHOTOS ON SKYE: Epic Storm Photos from the Twittersphere

 

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Why So Many Hurricanes This Year? Blame El Niño

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Credit: NOAA

Before the beginning of this hurricane season, back in May, forecasters thought this year would be an average one. Come August, when the season typically peaks, forecasters notched up their outlook, saying the season would in fact be busier than average.

Now it's October and it's been one of the busiest seasons on record, with 19 named storms so far this year, 10 of which became hurricanes, including Hurricane Sandy, which has the potential to strike the East Coast.

That puts the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season in rarified company. Only seven seasons since 1851 (as far back as hurricane records reach) have seen 19 or more named storms. Three of these have been within the last decade: the 2010 and 2011 seasons had 19 storms each and the 2005 season had a whopping 28 storms, the most on record, including Hurricane Katrina.

Originally, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted there would be nine to 15 named storms this year. Then, in August, it upped its prediction to 12 to 17 named storms, with five to eight of those becoming hurricanes. (Storms are named once they attain tropical storm status - defined as a rotating, organized storm with maximum sustained winds of at least 39 mph [63 kph]. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane once its top winds hit at least 74 mph [119 kph].)

It's relatively unusual to have more storms than forecast, said Gerry Bell, the lead hurricane season forecaster at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center. So why has this hurricane season been busier than expected?

The underestimate can be blamed on El Niño, Bell told OurAmazingPlanet. Or rather, the lack of El Niño. Forecasters predicted that this climate pattern, characterized by warm surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, would have developed by now and stymied hurricane formation by its influence on the atmosphere. But it hasn't.

Blame it on El Niño

Bell said the hurricane forecast represents how many storms there are likely to be, within a 70 percent probability. In recent years their forecasts have been 95 percent accurate, he said.

This year, cyclone activity has continued longer than expected in the Atlantic, unperturbed by El Niño, which spawns high-level winds that stream eastward and can disrupt the swirling motion that gives a developing storm its power, Bell said.

"There was a strong indication that El Niño would form in time to suppress the peak of the hurricane season and El Niño just hasn't formed yet," he said.

Other climate factors also played a part in this year's season, as well as some of the other recent busy seasons.

The main reason for the recent abundance of cyclones is that since 1995, the Atlantic Ocean basin has been in the warm phase of a cyclical climate pattern called the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation, with hotter-than-average surface temperatures throughout the tropics and subtropics, Bell said. This pattern lasts for about 25-40 years, and comes with more hurricanes than its "cool" phase, he said. Warm water helps hurricanes form and fuels their strength. [Storm Season! How, When & Where Hurricanes Form]

In addition, in the past few years there has also been a strong West African monsoon, which creates disturbances in the eastern Atlantic that can turn into cyclones (the generic name for hurricanes and tropical storms), Bell said. There's also been relatively weak wind shear in the tropical Atlantic where cyclones form. Wind shear is a difference in wind speed or direction between the low and high atmosphere, which tears apart developing storms. Wind shear is the main way El Niño hampers cyclone formation.

One thing that likely isn't to blame for the increase in hurricanes in recent years is global warming, Bell said. Many climate models suggest that increased temperatures could actually lead to fewer, but stronger, hurricanes worldwide, he said.

An unusual season

Overall it's been a very unusual hurricane season, said Phil Klotzbach, a hurricane expert at Colorado State University. While there have been 10 hurricanes, they've lasted only a total of 23 days. An average hurricane season has six hurricanes, but also about 25 hurricane days. "All that's to say, we've had a lot of short-lived hurricanes so far," he said in an email. [50 Amazing Hurricane Facts]

The cyclones this year haven't been as strong as usual, with only one major hurricane, defined as Category 3 or stronger on the Saffir-Simpson scale.

Better technology also allows us to detect more hurricanes than in the past, Klotzbach said. In the past few decades satellites have significantly increased the detection of tropical storms that last less than 36 hours. This year there have been three tropical storms that lasted less than 1.5 days: tropical storms Helene, Joyce and Patty. These storms might have been missed in the pre-satellite era, and indeed, some storms actually could have been, meaning more seasons may have been as busy as this one has been.

But regardless of what the hurricane season forecast is, people who live near the Atlantic or the Gulf of Mexico need to be prepared for storms, Bell said. "It only takes one big storm to hit land to cause a lot of damage."

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

In Images: Hurricane Season 2012
Hurricanes from Above: See Nature's Biggest Storms
A History of Destruction: 8 Great Hurricanes

Copyright 2012 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

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Funny Tweets About Not-So-Funny Frankenstorm

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Hurricane Sandy Could Outdo 'Perfect Storm'

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The Suomi NPP satellite caught this image of Hurricane Sandy Thursday morning, just as the cyclone passed over Cuba. (NOAA/NASA/GSFC/SuomiNPP)

By Douglas Main

A frightening collision of weather systems is brewing and could create a tempest even worse than 1991's "Perfect Storm." This "Frankenstorm," as some are calling it, is set to strike the Northeast on or near the 21st anniversary of that historic squall.

On the one hand, you have Hurricane Sandy barreling north, expected to hit somewhere on the U.S. East Coast in the middle of next week. At the same time, a cold front is moving across the middle of the country, bringing cold temperatures and snow.

The two will probably meet about the time the hurricane makes landfall and, together, could form an even bigger nor'easter (snor'eastercane, some have said). And that's bad news.

"In all likelihood, it will be worse than the Perfect Storm," said William Komaromi, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami. [How To Prepare for Hurricane Sandy]

The Perfect Storm

The Perfect Storm hit the Northeast on Nov. 1, 1991. It formed when the remnants of Hurricane Grace were absorbed by a low-pressure storm system, or nor'easter, at the edge of a cold front. That created a new storm near Newfoundland that swirled to the southwest and lashed New England with high winds, rain and waves. This new storm was an extra-tropical cyclone, meaning a cyclone that forms outside of the tropics, and it briefly reached hurricane strength, or winds of 74 mph (119 kph) or greater.

But the Perfect Storm differs from this Frankenstorm in important ways. For one, Hurricane Grace had dissipated significantly before the low-pressure system absorbed it. The storm then strengthened and moved south and west, pushed by a high-pressure system from the north and east.

In this case, however, the damage will likely come from the hurricane itself, which is predicted to make landfall in the mid-Atlantic or Northeast, unlike Grace.

Komaromi said his models suggest that the hurricane will likely "phase," or become absorbed by a developing storm on the edge of the cold front. Storms often naturally develop on the edge of cold fronts, and can form extratropical cyclones. These systems are driven by a difference in temperatures - cold to the west, warm to the east - which then swirl together, creating strong winds. The extreme low pressures created by a hurricane could help start this swirling process, giving the storm renewed strength. (By contrast, tropical cyclones, including tropical storms and hurricanes, are fueled by warm water, warm moist air and the convection these phenomena can create.)

Storm of the Century

But Jeff Weber, a scientist with the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., said he doesn't think a new storm will absorb the hurricane. He likens this hurricane more to the "Storm of the Century," a cyclone that hit the eastern United States in early March 1993. (Since it hit before the hurricane season began, it didn't receive an official name.) Weber said he thinks the damage will come from the hurricane itself, and he said the storm won't likely link with another developing storm.

What both Komaromi and Weber can agree upon, however, is that the storm is likely to be extremely bad, creating very high winds. Several models suggest that Sandy could produce the lowest barometric pressure in the history of the United States, he said. The high-pressure cold front moving toward the Northeast could help create especially strong gales, since wind is created by differences in pressure, as air wants to flow from high to low pressure. Weber predicts Sandy's winds could reach 100 mph (160 kph).

"We're talking winds in the 100-mph range as it's making landfall in the Northeast," he said.

What's in a name?

The name "Perfect Storm" refers specifically to the 1991 cyclone. But the term has been adopted to refer to other storms formed when conditions are just right to produce a large tempest.

What are those conditions? They are pretty much all in place right now. For one, the waters of the Gulf Stream, which ferry warm seawater from the northeast Caribbean into the Atlantic, are warmer than usual, providing fuel for Sandy. Secondly, the North Atlantic is "blocked" by a low-pressure system over Greenland. That has backed up the jet stream, the current of air that runs eastward over North America and into the ocean; it looks like this will allow Sandy to curve to the west and hit the East Coast, Komaromi said.

The storm will also hit around the time of the full moon, meaning the tides will be higher than usual and setting the stage for a damaging storm surge. [Video - Storm Surge: The Deadliest Part Of A Hurricane]

Then there is the advancing hurricane and high-pressure system, creating strong differences in pressure and high winds, likely stronger than those during the Perfect Storm.

"It's a little early to say it'll definitely be worse, but it probably will be," Komaromi said.

Reach Douglas Main at dmain@techmedianetwork.com. Follow him on Twitter @Douglas_Main. Follow OurAmazingPlanet on Twitter @OAPlanet. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

In Images: Hurricane Season 2012
Hurricanes from Above: See Nature's Biggest Storms
50 Amazing Hurricane Facts

Copyright 2012 OurAmazingPlanet, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Airlines Ask Fliers to Reschedule Due to Super Storm

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(Thinkstock)

NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. airlines are giving travelers a way out if they want to scrap their plans due to Hurricane Sandy.

All the major airlines are offering waivers to customers who wish to reschedule their flights without incurring the typical fee of up to $150. The offers cover passengers flying in or out of just about any airport from Latin America to New Hampshire. Most waivers for travel in the Northeast are only valid Monday through Wednesday.

The airlines have only canceled a handful of flights so far, nearly all of them in and out of Florida and the Caribbean.

Hurricane Sandy killed at least 20 people in the Caribbean, and left Bahamas this afternoon. It is expected to move north, just off the Eastern Seaboard.

Forecasters say it could blend with a winter storm to produce a so-called "Frankenstorm" along the U.S. East Coast next week. They say there will be hundreds of miles of steady, strong and damaging winds and rain for the entire Eastern region for several days. That could produce a bigger wallop than last year's damaging Irene, which caused the cancellation of nearly 14,000 flights in a four-day period.

Those hoping to fly in or out of affected areas are asked to check their flight status before heading to the airport. Airlines also promise to update their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds with the latest information. To cancel, passengers should call the airline directly. Some airlines also allow changes to be made on their websites.

The last major storm to threaten airline operations was Hurricane Isaac, which hit the Gulf Coast in late August. A few hundred flights were canceled.

Passengers can expect cancellations to increase as the storm moves north over the weekend.

"Airlines and other operators generally stop flying to airports in the potential storm path long before winds reach dangerous levels," the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

On its current path, Sandy threatens major disruptions at airports around New York - the nation's busiest airspace. United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Southwest Airlines and JetBlue all have large operations in the New York area. US Airways has a hub in Philadelphia. Low-cost carrier Spirit Airlines flies between some East Coast cities and the Caribbean.

 

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How to Prepare for the East Coast Super Storm

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East Coast Residents Prepare for Megastorm

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Updated Saturday, Oct. 27, 2012

Andy Lugo stocks up on supplies for branches of First Republic Bank in New York City on Oct. 26 in anticipation of the coming superstorm. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. (AP) - Douglas Jumper choked up as he described the long, slow recovery in his central Pennsylvania town from last year's historic flooding caused by Hurricane Irene and the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee - and contemplated the possibility of yet more damage from an approaching storm.

"I'm tired. I am tired," Jumper, who turned 58 on Saturday, said through tears. "We don't need this again."

Jumper's town of Bloomsburg, and much of the Eastern Seaboard, was in the path of a rare behemoth storm barreling north from the Caribbean. Hurricane Sandy - upgraded again Saturday just hours after forecasters said it had weakened to a tropical storm - was expected to make landfall early Tuesday near the Delaware coast, then hit two winter weather systems as it moves inland. That is expected to create a hybrid monster storm that could bring nearly a foot of rain, high winds and up to 2 feet of snow.

Experts said the storm could be wider and stronger than Irene, which caused more than $15 billion in damage, and could rival the worst East Coast storm on record. On Saturday morning, forecasters said hurricane-force winds of 75 mph could be felt 100 miles away from the storm's center.

Jumper's first floor took on nearly 5 feet of water last year, and he was busy Friday moving items from his wood shop to higher ground. Across the street, Patrick and Heather Peters pulled into the driveway with a kerosene heater, 12 gallons of water, paper plates, batteries, flashlights and the last lantern on Wal-Mart's shelf.

"I'm not screwing around this time," Heather Peters said.

RELATED ON SKYE: How to Prepare for the East Coast Super Storm

Up and down the coast, people were cautioned to be prepared for days without electricity. Jersey Shore beach towns began issuing voluntary evacuations and protecting boardwalks. Atlantic City casinos made contingency plans to close, and officials advised residents of flood-prone areas to stay with family or be ready to leave. Several governors declared states of emergency. Airlines said to expect cancellations and waived change fees for passengers who want to reschedule.

"Be forewarned," Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. "Assume that you will be in the midst of flooding conditions, the likes of which you may not have seen at any of the major storms that have occurred over the last 30 years."

PHOTOS ON SKYE: The East Coast Prepares for Megastorm
At a Home Depot in Freeport, on New York's Long Island, Bob Notheis bought sawhorses to put his furniture on inside his home.

"I'm just worried about how bad it's going to be with the tidal surge," he said. "Irene was kind of rough on me and I'm just trying to prepare."

After Irene left millions without power, utilities were taking no chances and were lining up extra crews and tree-trimmers. Wind threatened to topple power lines, and trees that still have leaves could be weighed down by snow and fall over if the weight becomes too much.

New York City began precautions for an ominous but still uncertain forecast. No decision had been made on whether any of the city's public transportation outlets would be shut, despite predictions that a sudden shift of the storm's path could cause a surge of 3 to 6 feet in the subways.

The subway system was completely shuttered during Irene, the first such shutdown ever for weather-related reasons. Irene largely missed the city, but struck other areas hard.

In upstate New York, Richard Ball was plucking carrots, potatoes, beets and other crops from the ground as quickly as possible Friday. Ball was still shaky from Irene, which scoured away soil, ruined crops and killed livestock.

Farmers were moving tractors and other equipment to high ground, and some families pondered moving furniture to upper stories in their homes.

"The fear we have a similar recipe to Irene has really intensified anxieties in town," Ball said.

The storm loomed a little more than a week before Election Day, while several states were heavily involved in campaigning, canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Vice President Joe Biden both canceled weekend campaign events in coastal Virginia Beach, Va., though their events in other parts of the states were going on as planned. In Rhode Island, politicians asked supporters to take down yard signs for fear they might turn into projectiles in the storm.

Sandy killed more than 40 people in the Caribbean, wrecked homes and knocked down trees and power lines.

Early Saturday, the storm was about 155 miles (250 kilometers) north of Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas and 350 miles (565 kilometers) south-southeast of Charleston, S.C. Its sustained wind speed dropped below 70 mph (110 kph), which downgraded the storm from hurricane strength.

Tropical storm warnings were issued for parts of Florida's East Coast, along with parts of coastal North and South Carolina and the Bahamas. Tropical storm watches were issued for coastal Georgia and parts of South Carolina, along with parts of Florida and Bermuda.

Sandy was projected to hit the Atlantic Coast early Tuesday. As it turns back to the north and northwest and merges with colder air from a winter system, West Virginia and further west into eastern Ohio and southern Pennsylvania are expected to get snow. Forecasters were looking at the Delaware shore as the spot the storm will turn inland, bringing 10 inches of rain and extreme storm surges, said Louis Uccellini, environmental prediction director for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Up to 2 feet of snow was predicted to fall on West Virginia, with lighter snow in parts of Ohio and Pennsylvania. A wide swath of the East, measuring several hundreds of miles, will get persistent gale-force 50 mph winds, with some areas closer to storm landfall getting closer to 70 mph, said James Franklin, forecast chief for the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

"It's going to be a long-lasting event, two to three days of impact for a lot of people," Franklin said. "Wind damage, widespread power outages, heavy rainfall, inland flooding and somebody is going to get a significant surge event."

Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground, said this could be as big, perhaps bigger, than the worst East Coast storm on record, a 1938 New England hurricane that is sometimes known as the Long Island Express, which killed nearly 800 people.

Nonetheless, some residents were still shrugging off the impending storm.

On North Carolina's Outer Banks, Marilyn McCluster made the four-hour drive from her home in Chase City, Va., to her family's beach house in Nags Head anticipating a relaxing weekend by the shore.

"It's just wind and rain; I'm hoping that's it," she said Friday as she filled her SUV at the Duck Thru, a gas station.

Inside the station, clerks had a busy day, with daytime sales bringing in about 75 percent of the revenue typically seen during the mid-summer tourist high season, said Jamicthon Howard, 56, of Manteo. Gasoline demand came from tourists leaving Hatteras Island to the south to avoid being stranded if low-lying NC Highway 12 is buried under saltwater and sand as often happens during storms, Howard said, but also locals making sure they're ready for anything.

"They're preparing for lockdown or to make a move," Howard said.

No evacuations had been ordered and ferries hadn't yet been closed. Plenty of stores remained open and houses still featured Halloween decorations outside, as rain started to roll in.

"I'll never evacuate again," said Lori Hilby, manager of a natural foods market in Duck, who left her home before Hurricane Irene struck last August. "... Whenever I evacuate, I always end up somewhere and they lose power and my house is fine. So I'm always wishing I was home."

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Photos: East Coast Prepares for Megastorm

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Historic Megastorm Churns Toward U.S. East Coast

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Updated Saturday, Oct. 27 12:05 p.m. ET

NOAA

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hurricane Sandy - upgraded again Saturday just hours after forecasters said it had weakened to a tropical storm - headed north from the Caribbean and was expected to pummel the eastern United States.

The U.S. National Weather Service said the storm was expected to make landfall early Tuesday near the Delaware coast, then hit two winter weather systems as it moves inland, creating a hybrid monster storm that could bring torrential rain, high winds, and up to two feet (60 centimeters) of snow.

Even if Sandy loses strength and makes landfall as something less than a hurricane, the combined storm was expected to bring misery to a huge section of the eastern U.S. An 800-mile (1,300-kilometer) wide swath of the country could see 50 mph (80 kph) winds regardless of Sandy's strength.

Experts said the storm could be wider and stronger than Irene, which caused more than $15 billion in damage when it struck in August 2011, and could rival the worst East Coast storm on record.

On Saturday morning, forecasters said hurricane-force winds of 75 mph (120 kph) could be felt 100 miles (160 miles) away from Sandy's center.

Sandy killed more than 40 people in the Caribbean, wrecked homes and knocked down trees and power lines. On Saturday morning, the storm was about 355 miles (571 kilometers) southeast of Charleston, South Carolina. Its sustained wind speed was about 75 mph (120 kph).

Up and down the coast, people were cautioned to be prepared for days without electricity. Beach towns in New Jersey began issuing voluntary evacuations and protecting boardwalks. Atlantic City casinos made contingency plans to close, and officials advised residents of flood-prone areas to stay with family or be ready to leave. Several governors declared states of emergency. Airlines said to expect cancellations and waived change fees for passengers who want to reschedule.

"Be forewarned," Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. "Assume that you will be in the midst of flooding conditions, the likes of which you may not have seen at any of the major storms that have occurred over the last 30 years."

RELATED ON SKYE: 5 Reasons Why Sandy is Expected to be a Superstorm

"It's looking like a very serious storm that could be historic," said Jeff Masters, meteorology director of the forecasting service Weather Underground.

With a rare mix of three big merging weather systems over a densely populated region, experts predict at least $1 billion in damage.

Sandy, having blown through Haiti and Cuba and leaving 43 dead across the Caribbean, continued to barrel north. A wintry storm was moving across the U.S. from the west, and frigid air was streaming south from Canada.

If they meet Tuesday morning around New York or New Jersey, as forecasters predict, they could create a big, wet mess that settles over the nation's most heavily populated corridor and reaches as far west as Ohio.

Government forecasters said there is a 90 percent chance - up from 60 percent two days earlier - that the East Coast will get pounded.

"It's going to be a long-lasting event, two to three days of impact for a lot of people," said James Franklin, forecast chief for the National Hurricane Center.

With much of the U.S. East Coast in the storm's path, residents of the nation's most densely populated corridor contemplated whether to heed the dire warnings.

"You know how many times they tell you, 'This is it, it's really coming and it's really the big one,' and then it turns out not to be?" said Alice Stockton-Rossini as she packed up to leave her home a few hundred yards (meters) from the ocean in Ship Bottom, New Jersey.

"I'm afraid people will tune it out because of all the false alarms before, and the one time you need to take it seriously, you won't. This one might be the one."

RELATED ON SKYE: Funny Tweets About Not-so-Funny Frankenstorm
In North Carolina's Outer Banks, light rain was falling Saturday and winds were building up to a predicted 30 to 50 mph (50 to 80 kph). A steady stream of campers and other vehicles hauling boats were leaving the low-lying islands for the mainland. Residents feared a temporary bridge built after Irene last year poked a new inlet through the island could be washed out again, severing the only road off Hatteras Island.

At a Home Depot in Freeport, on New York's Long Island, Bob Notheis bought sawhorses to get his furniture off the floor inside his home.

"I'm just worried about how bad it's going to be with the tidal surge," he said. "Irene was kind of rough on me and I'm just trying to prepare."

After Irene left millions without power, utilities were taking no chances and were lining up extra crews and tree-trimmers. Wind threatened to topple power lines, and trees that still have leaves could be weighed down by snow and fall over if the weight becomes too much.

New York City began precautions for an ominous but still uncertain forecast. No decision had been made on whether any of the city's public transportation outlets would be shut, despite predictions that a sudden shift of the storm's path could cause a surge of 3 to 6 feet (90 to 180 centimeters) in the subways.

The subway system was completely shuttered during Irene, the first such shutdown ever for weather-related reasons. Irene largely missed the city, but struck other areas hard.

The storm loomed a little more than a week before Election Day, while several states were heavily involved in campaigning, canvassing and get-out-the-vote efforts. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and Vice President Joe Biden both canceled weekend campaign events in coastal Virginia Beach, Virginia, though their events in other parts of the states were going on as planned.

The worst East Coast storm on record was a 1938 New England hurricane that is sometimes known as the Long Island Express, which killed nearly 800 people.

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5 Reasons Why Sandy is Expected to be a Superstorm

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1. A NORTHBOUND HURRICANE

Hurricane Sandy is moving very slowly toward the north-northeast and is expected to continue its current path parallel to the Carolinas over the weekend, forecasters say. At some point, it's expected to become what's known as an extratropical storm. Unlike a tropical system like a hurricane, which gets its power from warm ocean waters, extratropical systems are driven by temperature contrasts in the atmosphere. At some point, probably Monday, Sandy will begin to turn back toward the coast and eventually make landfall over Delaware or New Jersey.

Although Sandy is currently a hurricane, it's important not to focus too much on its official category or its precise path. It's a massive system that will affect a huge swath of the East Coast, regardless of exactly where it hits or its precise wind speed.

2. EARLY WINTER STORM

Sandy is expected to merge with a wintry system from the west, at which point it will become the powerful superstorm that has forecasters and officials all along the Eastern Seaboard on edge. One of the other systems is an early winter storm from the west - the product of a low pressure system. Winds from that system will pull Sandy back toward the U.S. mainland.

3. ARCTIC AIR FROM THE NORTH

Frigid air coming south from Canada also is expected to collide with Sandy and the wintry storm from the west, creating a megastorm that is expected to park over the northeast for days. Forecasters are expecting residents from Florida to North Carolina to feel the peripheral effects. But the brunt of the storm will hit states farther north once Sandy collides with the winter storm and frigid air. Officials are bracing for the worst: nearly a foot of rain, high winds and up to 2 feet of snow.

4. HIGH TIDES COULD WORSEN FLOODING

Further complicating matters is the possibility for dangerous storm surges: A full moon means the tides will be higher than usual, which will make it easier for the storm's powerful winds to push water into low-lying areas. That, coupled with the threat of several inches of rain, has officials working to shore up flood defenses.

5. COMBO OF SNOW, WIND INCREASES RISK FOR WIDESPREAD POWER OUTAGES

Storms in recent years have left hundreds of thousands of people along the East Coast without power, sometimes for days at a time. Utilities have been bringing in extra crews and lining up tree trimmers so they're prepared, and with good reason. The superstorm brings two possibilities for knocking out electricity. For one, hurricane-force winds of at 74 mph could send tree branches into power lines, or even topple entire trees and power poles. Those left standing could succumb to snow, which could weigh down still-leafy branches enough to also topple trees.

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'Frankenstorm': Greater Than the Sum of its Parts

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A satellite image of Sandy is shown at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Saturday, Oct. 27.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The storm that is threatening 60 million Americans in the eastern third of the nation in just a couple of days with persistent high winds, drenching rains, extreme tides, flooding and probably snow is much more than just an ordinary weather system. It's a freakish and unprecedented monster.

What forces created it?

Start with Sandy, an ordinary late summer hurricane from the tropics, moving north up the East Coast. Bring in a high pressure ridge of air centered around Greenland that blocks the hurricane's normal out-to-sea path and forces it west toward land.

Add a wintry cold front moving in from the west and colliding with that storm. Mix in a blast of Arctic air from the north. Add a full moon and its usual effect, pulling in high tides. Factor in immense waves commonly thrashed up by a huge hurricane plus massive gale-force winds.

Do all that and you get a stitched-together weather monster expected to unleash its power over 800 square miles, with predictions in some areas of 12 inches of rain, 2 feet of snow and sustained 40- to 50 mph winds.

"The total is greater than the sum of the individual parts" said Louis Uccellini, the environmental prediction chief of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists. "That is exactly what's going on here."

RELATED ON SKYE: East Coast Prepares for Megastorm

This storm is so dangerous and so unusual because it is coming at the tail end of hurricane season and beginning of winter storm season, "so it's kind of taking something from both - part hurricane, part nor'easter, all trouble," Jeff Masters, director of the private service Weather Underground, said Saturday.

With Sandy expected to lose tropical characteristics, NOAA is putting up warnings that aren't hurricane or tropical for coastal areas north of North Carolina, causing some television meteorologists to complain that it is all too confusing. Nor is it merely a coastal issue anyway. Craig Fugate of the Federal Emergency Management Agency told reporters Saturday: "This is not a coastal threat alone. This is a very large area. This is going to be well inland."

It's a topsy-turvy storm, too. The far northern areas of the East, around Maine, should get much warmer weather as the storm hits, practically shirt-sleeve weather for early November, Masters and Uccellini said. Around the Mason-Dixon line, look for much cooler temperatures. West Virginia and even as far south as North Carolina could see snow. Lots of it.

It is what NOAA forecaster Jim Cisco meant Thursday when he called it "Frankenstorm" in a forecast, an allusion to Mary Shelley's gothic creature of synthesized elements.

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Mapping the Megastorm: Track it Live

Superstorm Threat Launches Mass Evacuations

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Updated Saturday, Oct. 27, 11:40 p.m. ET

Large waves generated by Hurricane Sandy crash into Jeanette's Pier in Nags Head, N.C., Saturday, Oct. 27, as the storm moves up the East Coast.

SHIP BOTTOM, N.J. (AP) - Forget distinctions like tropical storm or hurricane. Don't get fixated on a particular track. Wherever it hits, the rare behemoth storm inexorably gathering in the eastern U.S. will afflict a third of the country with sheets of rain, high winds and heavy snow, say officials who warned millions in coastal areas to get out of the way.

"We're looking at impact of greater than 50 to 60 million people," said Louis Uccellini, head of environmental prediction for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

As Hurricane Sandy barreled north from the Caribbean - where it left nearly five dozen dead - to meet two other powerful winter storms, experts said it didn't matter how strong the storm was when it hit land: The rare hybrid storm that follows will cause havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

RELATED ON SKYE: Mapping the Megastorm - Track it Live
"This is not a coastal threat alone," said Craig Fugate, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. "This is a very large area."

President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie declared a state of emergency Saturday as hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland and the state was set to close its casinos. New York's governor was considering shutting down the subways to avoid flooding and half a dozen states warned residents to prepare for several days of lost power.

Sandy weakened briefly to a tropical storm early Saturday but was soon back up to Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph winds about 355 miles southeast of Charleston, S.C., as of 8 p.m. Experts said the storm was most likely to hit the southern New Jersey coastline by late Monday or early Tuesday.

Governors from North Carolina, where heavy rain was expected Sunday, to Connecticut declared states of emergency. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.

Christie, who was widely criticized for not interrupting a family vacation in Florida while a snowstorm pummeled the state in 2010, broke off campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in North Carolina on Friday to return home.

"I can be as cynical as anyone," the pugnacious chief executive said in a bit of understatement Saturday. "But when the storm comes, if it's as bad as they're predicting, you're going to wish you weren't as cynical as you otherwise might have been."

The storm forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in the swing state of Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm. He canceled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday.

RELATED ON SKYE: East Coast Prepares for Megastorm

In Ship Bottom, just north of Atlantic City, Alice and Giovanni Stockton-Rossini spent Saturday packing clothing in the backyard of their home, a few hundred yards from the ocean on Long Beach Island. Their neighborhood was under a voluntary evacuation order, but they didn't need to be forced.

"It's really frightening," Alice Stockton-Rossi said. "But you know how many times they tell you, 'This is it, it's really coming and it's really the big one' and then it turns out not to be? I'm afraid people will tune it out because of all the false alarms before ... (but) this one might be the one."

A few blocks away, Russ Linke was taking no chances. He and his wife secured the patio furniture, packed the bicycles into the pickup truck, and headed off the island.

What makes the storm so dangerous and unusual is that it is coming at the tail end of hurricane season and the beginning of winter storm season, "so it's kind of taking something from both," said Jeff Masters, director of the private service Weather Underground.

Masters said the storm could be bigger than the worst East Coast storm on record - the 1938 New England hurricane known as the Long Island Express, which killed nearly 800 people. "Part hurricane, part nor'easter - all trouble," he said. Experts said to expect high winds over 800 miles and up to 2 feet of snow as far inland as West Virginia.

And the storm was so big, and the convergence of the three storms so rare, that "we just can't pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it," said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Officials are particularly worried about the possibility of subway flooding in New York City, said Uccellini.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to prepare to shut the city's subways, buses and suburban trains by Sunday, but delayed making a final decision. The city shut the subways down before last year's Hurricane Irene, and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 1 foot higher would have paralyzed lower Manhattan.

Up and down the Eastern Seaboard and far inland, officials urged residents and businesses to prepare in big ways and little.

On Saturday evening, Amtrak began canceling train service to parts of the East Coast, including between Washington, D.C., and New York.

The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops to active duty for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns. At a Home Depot in Virginia Beach, employee Dave Jusino said the store was swamped with customers.

"We have organized chaos, is what I call it," Jusino said. "We organize a group of 10 associates, give them certain responsibilities and we just separate the lines, organize four customers at a time, load up their cars and get them out the door and then take the next customers."

Utility officials warned rains could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple into power lines, and told residents to prepare for several days at home without power. "We're facing a very real possibility of widespread, prolonged power outages," said Ruth Miller, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency.

Warren Ellis, who was on an annual fishing pilgrimage on North Carolina's Outer Banks, didn't act fast enough to get home. Ellis' 73-year-old father managed to get off uninhabited Portsmouth Island near Cape Hatteras by ferry Friday. But the son and his camper got stranded when high winds and surf forced the ferry service to suspend operations Saturday.

"We might not get off here until Tuesday or Wednesday, which doesn't hurt my feelings that much," said Ellis, 44, of Amissville, Va. "Because the fishing's going to be really good after this storm."

Last year, Hurricane Irene poked a new inlet through the island, cutting the only road off Hatteras Island for about 4,000.

In Connecticut, the Naval Submarine Base in Groton prepared to install flood gates and pile up sandbags to protect against flooding while its five submarines remain in port through the storm.

Lobsterman Greg Griffen in Maine wasn't taking any chances; he moved 100 of his traps to deep water, where they are less vulnerable to shifting and damage in a storm.

"Some of my competitors have been pulling their traps and taking them right home," said Griffen. The dire forecast "sort of encouraged them to pull the plug on the season."

In Muncy Valley in northern Pennsylvania, Rich Fry learned his lesson from last year, when Tropical Storm Lee inundated his Katie's Country Store.

In between helping customers picking up necessities Saturday, Fry was moving materials above the flood line. Fry said he was still trying to recover from the losses of last year's storm, when he estimates he lost $35,000 in merchandise.

"It will take a lot of years to cover that," he said.

Christie's emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic City's 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling here. The approach of Hurricane Irene shut down the casinos for three days last August.

Atlantic City officials said they would begin evacuating the gambling hub's 30,000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to mainland shelters and schools.

Tom Foley, Atlantic City's emergency management director, recalled the March 1962 storm when the ocean and the bay met in the center of the city.

"This is predicted to get that bad," he said.

Eighty-five-year-old former sailor Ray Leonard said if he had loved ones living in the projected landfall area, he would tell them to leave. Leonard knows to heed the warnings.

He and two crewmates in his 32-foot sailboat, Satori, rode out 1991's infamous "perfect storm," made famous by the Sebastian Junger bestseller of the same name, before being plucked from the Atlantic off Martha's Vineyard, Mass., by a Coast Guard helicopter.

"Don't be rash," Leonard said in a telephone interview Saturday from his home in Fort Myers, Fla. "Because if this does hit, you're going to lose all those little things you've spent the last 20 years feeling good about."

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Megastorm Could Wreak Havoc Across 800 Miles of U.S.

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Updated Sunday, Oct. 28. 11:43 a.m. ET

NOAA

SHIP BOTTOM, New Jersey (AP) - Tens of millions of people in the eastern third of the U.S. in the path of a massive freak storm had braced Sunday for the first raindrops that were expected later in the day, to be followed over the next few days by sheets of rain, high winds and even heavy snow.

The warning from officials to anyone who might be affected was simple: Be prepared and get out of the way.

PHOTOS ON SKYE: Superstorm Kicks up Waves, Threatens Coast
Hurricane Sandy was headed north from the Caribbean, where it left nearly five dozen dead, to meet a winter storm and a cold front, plus high tides from a full moon, and experts said the rare hybrid storm that results will cause havoc over 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from the East Coast to the Great Lakes.

The danger was hardly limited to coastal areas. Forecasters were far more worried about inland flooding from the storm surge than they were about winds. Rains could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple into power lines, utility officials said, warning residents to prepare for several days at home without power.

States of emergency were declared from North Carolina, where gusty winds whipped steady rain on Sunday morning, to Connecticut. Delaware ordered mandatory evacuations for coastal communities by 8 p.m. Sunday.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ordered New York City's transit service to suspend bus, subway and commuter rail service starting at 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) Sunday in advance of the storm. The city closed the subways before Hurricane Irene last year, and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 1 foot (30 centimeters) higher would have paralyzed lower Manhattan.

RELATED ON SKYE: Mapping the Megastorm - Track it Live
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the 1.1-million-student New York City school system will be closed Monday. He also ordered the evacuation of part of lower Manhattan and the Rockaways, a low-lying coastal area in the borough of Queens.

Sandy was at Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph (120 kph) winds, about 250 miles (400 kilometers) southeast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and moving northeast at 14 mph (22.5 kph) as of 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was about 575 miles (925 kilometers) south of New York City.

The storm was expected to continue moving parallel to the Southeast coast most of the day and approach the coast of the mid-Atlantic states by Monday night, before reaching southern New England later in the week.

The storm was so big, however, and the convergence of the three storms so rare, that "we just can't pinpoint who is going to get the worst of it," said Rick Knabb, director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who was criticized for not interrupting a vacation in Florida while a snowstorm pummeled the state in 2010, broke off campaigning for Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney in North Carolina on Friday to return home.

"I can be as cynical as anyone," said Christie, who declared a state of emergency Saturday. "But when the storm comes, if it's as bad as they're predicting, you're going to wish you weren't as cynical as you otherwise might have been."

Up and down the Eastern Seaboard and far inland, officials urged residents and businesses to prepare in ways big and small.

Amtrak began canceling passenger train service Saturday night to parts of the East Coast, including between Washington and New York. Airlines started moving planes out of airports to avoid damage and adding Sunday flights out of New York and Washington in preparation for flight cancellations on Monday.

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The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops to active duty for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns.

President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.

In North Carolina's Outer Banks, there was some scattered, minor flooding at daybreak Sunday on the beach road in Nags Head. The bad weather could pick up there later in the day, with the major concerns being rising tides and pounding waves.

In New Jersey, hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland. Christie's emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic City's 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling there. City officials said they would begin evacuating the gambling hub's 30,000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to mainland shelters and schools.

"I've been here since 1997, and I never even put my barbecue grill away during a storm," Russ Linke said shortly before he and his wife left the Jersey shore barrier island town of Ship Bottom on Saturday. "But I am taking this one seriously. They say it might hit here. That's about as serious as it can get."

He and his wife secured the patio furniture, packed the bicycles into the pickup truck, and headed off the island.

The storm also forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a planned Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to beat the storm. He also canceled appearances in Northern Virginia on Monday and Colorado on Tuesday.

PHOTOS ON SKYE: Epic Storm Photos from the Twittersphere

 

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