Sandy’s Potential Visit Brings Back Memories Of October Snowstorm

The past two years have brought all kinds of extreme weather to New Jersey.  From powerful snowstorms to floods and hurricanes to rare weather events, the Garden State has seen it all. Following a summer of numerous severe weather events, Jersey residents are preparing for what could be another historic October storm.  Around this time last year, a rare snowstorm developed in New Jersey.  The storm knocked out power for days in some parts of the Garden State.  Snowfall amounts ranged from a few inches to over a foot.

This storm was a rare snowstorm for Jersey.  It was the first significant snowstorm in the month of October in my lifetime.  The storm brought 3.5 inches to South Plainfield and other locales in Northern Middlesex County, and caused power outages in the northern portion of South Plainfield, which left traffic lights out, slushy and icy unplowed roads, and houses in the dark and cold into the following morning.  Further north in places such as Morris, Passaic, and Bergen counties, snowfall amounts were much higher, and left many residents in those places without power for a number of days to over a week.

If Sandy does happen to come up into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast like some of the computer models have been suggesting, it will be a much different, but still a very rare and powerful storm.  The storm has been projected to become a weather system along the lines of the 1991 Perfect Storm, a hybrid storm combining the elements of a tropical storm or hurricane with that of a nor’easter.  What is left of Sandy is expected to bring a lot of rain, wind, waves, and surge into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.  The storm could end up being more damaging and devastating than Hurricane Irene was.  A potentially very large and powerful storm, Sandy could make a harder hit on Jersey since it forecast to make a left turn into the Mid-Atlantic coast from Delaware Bay to the Jersey Shore.

The path into Delaware Bay and the Jersey Shore could bring the brunt of this hybrid storm system into the Garden State, and at a different angle than Hurricane Irene.  The wind field with this storm will also be larger, and its effects could be longer lasting since it will track westward, and move fairly slowly. The slow motion will compound the effects of the wind as well as produce significant rainfall.  The good thing is that there hasn’t been as much rain this month, or even this year for that matter.  Less than three inches of rain has fallen so far this month.  Rainfall amounts with Irene here in Northwestern New Jersey were only about five inches.  However, prior to the storm, there was another 10 inches of rain in August 2011.  As a matter of fact, the last six months of 2011 had more rainfall than the year to date total in 2012.

Last year’s October snowstorm was an example of how the weather has become wild and extreme here in the Garden State since September 2010.  Over the last 25 months, we have seen all kinds of severe weather from hurricanes to blizzards to tornadoes, severe thunderstorms, derechos, torrential rains, and even stretches of dry weather and brush fires.  A visit from Sandy early next week would be just another difficult blow for New Jersey residents to endure.