I apologize, my power has been out all day so I will not be making a forecast today. I will resume tomorrow. Student forecasts begin this Friday, November 2 and will be posted every Monday, Wednesday and Friday until the end of the term (Friday, December 14).

A few notes about Sandy. Many records were broken including the lowest barometric pressure ever recorded in the continental U.S. at Atlantic City – 948 mb (28.01 inches). The BCC weather station, hundreds of miles from the storm center, which made landfall near Atlantic City, recorded a barometric pressure of 981 mb (28.98 inches). The incredible pressure gradient was responsible for the incredible winds, which spread out over hundreds of miles. This is not typical of a tropical system and occurred because, as discussed previously, in addition to the localized dynamics associated with the tropical core of this system, the interaction with the jet stream was able to add to the overall energy of this storm and generate a much larger system. Wind gusts between 80 and 100 mph were recorded from the Delmarva Peninsula all the way to Boston, MA!! This truly was an unprecedented and historical cyclone. Associated with this large area of hurricane force winds there were record storm surges from the Long Island Sound to the southern New Jersey coast. The surge was particularly prominent in the NYC area due to the orientation of the coast relative to the wind direction and the fact that there were sources of water from the LI Sound and the Atlantic Ocean, all converging in that area. Locally, the BCC weather station recorded a maximum gust of 48 mph, the Pittsfield Airport recorded 58 mph, there was a gust at the Otis Reservoir of 61 mph and an unofficial gust in Hancock of 77 mph. Although there were power outages, we were definitely spared the worst because the trees had already lost their leaves. A few representative rainfall totals are BCC: 1.25 inches, Pittsfield airport: 1.28 inches, Great Barrington: 1.82 inches, and my house in Richmond: 1.52 inches. Rainfall totals of 5-10 inches were commonplace in parts of the Mid-Atlantic and there is flooding in many locations. Heavy wet snow has fallen, and is falling, in the mountains of western NC, VA and WV with up to 3 feet reported in WV.