Community Corner

Sandy is Now a Hurricane, Still a Threat to Two Towns

Forecasting models are split, with some saying powerful Hurricane Sandy will blow out to sea, while others think it'll smack into New England as a tropical storm or depression.

The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Sandy from a tropical storm to hurricane on Wednesday with sustained wind speeds of 80 miles per hour. The storm, bearing down on Jamaica at a pokey 14 miles per hour, is expected to hug the east coast. What happens after that, however, is anyone's guess. 

At this time of year, storms like Sandy usually track out to sea well before they reach New England. But WHDH meteorologist Chris Lambert writes that high pressure near Greenland may change the normal jet stream pattern, shuttling Sandy to our doorsteps.

"If this were to occur, Sandy, which transitions into a massive Nor’easter, would provide an expanding shield of powerful winds and rain, bring in damaging gusts, flooding rains and coastal flooding over parts of the mid-Atlantic and/or New England anywhere in the Sunday-Tuesday timeframe," wrote Lambert on his blog.

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