![]() It is quite extraordinary that Sandy was able to hit New Jersey in late October, when the jet stream is typically stronger and farther south, making recurvature to the northeast much more likely than in September. However, the Vagabond Hurricane hit in September, when the jet stream is typically weaker and farther to the north. According to Wikipedia, the Vagabond Hurricane caused heavy damage along the New Jersey coast ($180 million in 2006 dollars.) The hurricane killed 57 people, and endangered the life of President Theodore Roosevelt, who was sailing on a yacht near Long Island, NY, when the hurricane hit. The only other hurricane to hit New Jersey since 1851 besides Sandy was the 1903 Category 1 Vagabond Hurricane. W hile there were a few past tracks that took a more northward jog inland near or over New Jersey, including Connie in 1955 and a September 1903 hurricane, Sandy's almost westward track into New. Its tropical classification was dropped shortly before landfall on. ![]() It is this sort of negatively tilted trough that sucked in Sandy and allowed the hurricane to take such an unusual path into New Jersey. Hurricane Sandy did not make landfall as a hurricane, but as an extratropical cyclone. The storm splintered homes, flooded neighborhoods and toppled trees across the state. These "negatively tilted" troughs have winds that flow from southeast to northwest. An unusual combination of hurricane conditions and cold fronts made Sandy particularly potent. Hurricane Sandy formed like most October hurricanes in the Caribbean on Oct. Every so often, a trough in the jet stream bends back on itself when encountering a ridge of high pressure stuck in place ahead of it. Sedimentologic and topographic data from Hurricane Sandy washover deposits were collected from Southern Long Beach Island, New Jersey, in order to document changes to the barrier-island beaches, dunes, and coastal wetlands due to Hurricane Sandy and subsequent storm events. These troughs of low pressure and ridges of high pressure allow winds at mid-latitudes to flow more to the north or to the south. However, the jet stream, that powerful band of upper-atmosphere west-to-east flowing air, has many dips and bulges. Tracking Sandy Early on, scientists at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Fla., started tracking the atmospheric activity that would become Sandy. Hurricanes that penetrate to about Florida's latitude usually get caught up in these westerly winds, and are whisked northeastwards, out to sea. But the prevailing wind direction reverses at mid-latitudes, flowing predominately west-to-east, due to the spin of the Earth. How did this happen? How was a hurricane able to move from southeast to northwest at landfall, so far north, and so late in hurricane season? We expect hurricanes to move from east to west in the tropics, where the prevailing trade winds blow that direction. New Jersey only rarely gets hit by hurricanes because it lies in a portion of the coast that doesn't stick out much, and is too far north. But to see these images from the Jersey Shore and New York City in the wake of Hurricane Sandy is a shocking experience. We're used to seeing hurricane-battered beaches and flooded cities in Florida, North Carolina, and the Gulf Coast.
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