[Nfbf-l] Hurricane Sandy

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Hurricane Sandy is beginning its slow exit from the  northeastern Bahamas 
and will be out over the open Atlantic later this  afternoon. Its western 
flank is brushing the Florida Atlantic Coast as it  passes. Sandy`s hazards 
include potential power disrupting wind gusts, bands of  heavy rainfall and a 
dangerous storm surge and increasing rip currents. After  that, the storm 
will march toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S.
A Tropical Storm Warning remains in effect for the  Florida East Coast from 
Ocean Reef to Flagler Beach, while Tropical Storm  Watches surround the 
tropical storm warnings along Florida`s East Coast from  Flagler Beach to 
Fernandina Beach, and from the Savannah River along the  Georgia/South Carolina 
border to Oregon Inlet, N.C., including Charleston, S.C.,  and the North 
Carolina Outer Banks.
Preparations to protect life and property should have been  completed 
across Florida, and should be started along the Carolinas coast. Gusts  reaching 
tropical storm strength, those in excess of 39 mph, have already been  
measured at several Earth Networks Live Tracking Stations along the southeast  
Florida Coast. The highest thus far is a 49 mph gust in Miami, Fla. Sandy`s  
Florida other impacts include a storm surge of 1 to 2 feet, gusts up to 50 
mph  and significant beach erosion and repeated bands of downpours. Click 
_here_ 
(http://weather.weatherbug.com/weather-news/weather-reports.html?zcode=z6286&story=14158)  for possible impacts across the Northeast.
Other warnings in effect across the Caribbean include a  Hurricane Warning 
for the Great Abaco and Grand Bahama Islands. A  Tropical Storm Warning is 
also in effect for the northwestern Bahamas. A  Tropical Storm Watch has been 
issued for Bermuda.
As of 11 a.m. EDT, Hurricane Sandy is centered near 26.7 N  and 76.9 W, or 
200 miles east of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and 480 miles  south-southeast of 
Charleston, S.C. Maximum sustained winds are 80 mph, and  Sandy is moving 
steadily northwest at 6 mph. Sandy`s minimum central pressure  has climbed to 
970 mb, or 28.64 inches of mercury.
Sandy, now a Category One hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson  Wind Scale, is 
steadily tracking through the northwestern Bahamas. It has  weakened a bit as 
it is fighting dry air and increasingly hostile upper-level  winds in its 
western flank, but Sandy remains a hurricane. It has also started  to expand 
outward, and its tropical storm force winds extend outward 275 miles  from 
the center.
After leaving the Bahamas and Florida behind, Sandy will  likely hang 
around Category-One strength on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale while  paralleling 
the East Coast this weekend. Latest forecasts are still conflicted  on 
Sandy`s exact track. One scenario merges Sandy with a Midwest upper-level low  
pressure, tracking it sharply into the Mid-Atlantic. Most others merge it with 
 the same upper-level disturbance off Cape Cod early next week, flinging it 
back  to the southern New England Coast and New York City area.
Regardless, all interests along the East Coast need to pay  particularly 
close attention to the progress of this hurricane during the next  several 
days. 
The Atlantic Hurricane season has been busy so far this  year with 19 named 
storms in the Atlantic basin, eight of which were hurricanes.  Luckily, 
only one has reached major hurricane status. By comparison, a typical  Atlantic 
hurricane season averages only 11.3 named storms, of which 6.2 become  
hurricanes and 2.3 of those become major hurricanes.