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OBS Thread for PHL area : Sandy / Post Trop Phase


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Sounds like Bucks Co. Really got crushed based on your posts and a few others

I'm still amazed at what I would call "minimal" impacts in the Schuylkill County area near my home. Sure there were trees down in some locations, and power was out for many. But in my travels yesterday on some back roads, higher elevations, open areas, and areas of thick forest, I found less damage than I thought I would. I only saw two houses with any kind of structural damage and they were nearly next door to each other. One had a patch of shingles ripped off the roof, and another one lost some siding.

It's my belief, that for some reason, some of the strongest winds either didn't mix down up here, or some other natural weather phenomena caused the winds to be less severe here than they were in other places. As a note, from about 6-8 pm, the winds were very calm in the immediate Tamaqua borough before cranking back up again overnight. Maybe there was some sort of mechanism in play that as Sandy was transitioning into a sub-tropical entity my particular location somehow ended up in a "relatively calm" zone.

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Here's my numbers from the middle of Cape May Island, about 1.25 miles south of the Cape May Canal. Peak gust WSW 70mph, 29th, 8:01pm. Peak gust on the 30th SSW 61mph, 12:10am. Rainfall: 28th 1.06", 29th 8.90", 30th .05", for a storm total of 10.01". The 8.90" is daily record; previous was 8.46", Aug. 18,1879. Barometer: lowest was 28.20", 29th , 6:28pm. The previous lowest I've record was 28.49", Mar. 13, 1993. I'm confident the 28.20" is the lowest ever recorded here. I'm well removed from the flood prone areas, thankfully, but still without actual electric; using a generator. We REALLY don't need anything like this ever again!

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I'm still amazed at what I would call "minimal" impacts in the Schuylkill County area near my home. Sure there were trees down in some locations, and power was out for many. But in my travels yesterday on some back roads, higher elevations, open areas, and areas of thick forest, I found less damage than I thought I would. I only saw two houses with any kind of structural damage and they were nearly next door to each other. One had a patch of shingles ripped off the roof, and another one lost some siding.

It's my belief, that for some reason, some of the strongest winds either didn't mix down up here, or some other natural weather phenomena caused the winds to be less severe here than they were in other places. As a note, from about 6-8 pm, the winds were very calm in the immediate Tamaqua borough before cranking back up again overnight. Maybe there was some sort of mechanism in play that as Sandy was transitioning into a sub-tropical entity my particular location somehow ended up in a "relatively calm" zone.

I wish one of mets possibly could chime in on this if they have an idea why. I'm rally curious about it.

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Well, were things worse off to your west? It could simply be that the storm was weakening as it came inland.

I'm sure they'll be all types of post mortems of Sandy. Based on reports in our thread, It sure looks like the further west you traveled from the NJ/PA border, the less harsh the winds were in terms of damage. I mean, the Bucks Co. reports sound alot worse than Montgomery Co. reports. That's not to say it wasn't bad here in my county. I think this makes sense due to storm weakening and frictional effects on the wind further inland.

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Well, were things worse off to your west? It could simply be that the storm was weakening as it came inland.

Yes. Sauss and Canderson were posting back and forth in the Central PA obs thread about the sound of the gusts hitting their houses. This was the same time a friend of mine was posting on Facebook about the wind gusts at his house in Saylorsburg, and Allentown was reporting their 70 mph gust at the airport. And as I said, the winds did pick back up and were howling after around 8:30PM or so. It's just that 2 hour time frame where all was virtually quiet here. It seems strange.

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What were the max. gusts across the Susq. Valley?

Selinsgrove 54 mph

Williamsport 40 mph

Scranton 44 mph

Middletown 52 mph

Harrisburg 53 mph

Not as strong as further east, for sure (which I kinda figured... the forecasts for gusts above 60 mph that far west seemed outlandish to me).

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Selinsgrove 54 mph

Williamsport 40 mph

Scranton 44 mph

Middletown 52 mph

Harrisburg 53 mph

Not as strong as further east, for sure (which I kinda figured... the forecasts for gusts above 60 mph that far west seemed outlandish to me).

Yeah, 40s and 50s would have cut it.

Makes sense since eastern PA was 10-20 mph stronger with gusts too.

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I'm sure they'll be all types of post mortems of Sandy. Based on reports in our thread, It sure looks like the further west you traveled from the NJ/PA border, the less harsh the winds were in terms of damage. I mean, the Bucks Co. reports sound alot worse than Montgomery Co. reports. That's not to say it wasn't bad here in my county. I think this makes sense due to storm weakening and frictional effects on the wind further inland.

It seems like the most damage in PA was in the Northeast Philly, NE Montco, and lower Bucks area. Seems like Chester and Lancaster Counties didn't do bad at all. Maybe that inverted trough feature did have some effect. It also looks like Berks and the Lehigh Valley were pretty hard hit.

Selinsgrove 54 mph

Williamsport 40 mph

Scranton 44 mph

Middletown 52 mph

Harrisburg 53 mph

Not as strong as further east, for sure (which I kinda figured... the forecasts for gusts above 60 mph that far west seemed outlandish to me).

Do you have the peak wind for Lancaster?

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It seems like the most damage in PA was in the Northeast Philly, NE Montco, and lower Bucks area. Seems like Chester and Lancaster Counties didn't do bad at all. Maybe that inverted trough feature did have some effect. It also looks like Berks and the Lehigh Valley were pretty hard hit.

Do you have the peak wind for Lancaster?

52 mph

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52 mph

Did you feel it not worth responding beyond my last post? You asked about conditions west of me, and I answered back that that they were, at the time, much windier than we were. Cast4 made mention of an inverted trough. I forgot that feature was shown on some of the models during various runs. Could that be the reason for the calm conditions for a couple of hours between the two periods of high winds I mentioned?

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Did you feel it not worth responding beyond my last post?

Ouch dude.

You asked about conditions west of me, and I answered back that that they were, at the time, much windier than we were. Cast4 made mention of an inverted trough. I forgot that feature was shown on some of the models during various runs. Could that be the reason for the calm conditions for a couple of hours between the two periods of high winds I mentioned?

Well, I saw your comment, then I saw Parsley's question about wind gusts reported in the Susquehanna Valley, which when dug up didn't appear to agree with what you had heard was going on to your west. What you described seemed to be perception, but after looking at the hard numbers, it appears that it was indeed less windy to the west.

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Ouch dude.

Well, I saw your comment, then I saw Parsley's question about wind gusts reported in the Susquehanna Valley, which when dug up didn't appear to agree with what you had heard was going on to your west. What you described seemed to be perception, but after looking at the hard numbers, it appears that it was indeed less windy to the west.

It was less windy to the west, and I really don't think the winds gusted much over 50mph when they were cranking good Monday afternoon and then later Monday night even in my location. It's the 2 hour period of near calm conditions, and by that I mean nothing more than 10-15mph during that time, that I'm asking about. How was everyone else west, south, east, and perhaps north, having gusts from 40-70mph, and I was getting 10-15...for a two hour period?

I have to add that I'm not using the numbers from my weather station which is in a bad location for wind. I'm speaking of true calm conditions throughout town. When I got home from work the winds were howling, then it quieted down and the trees weren't even moving much. Two hours later they picked back up and howled again.

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Ouch dude.

Sorry Ray, it's just that the few times that I ask questions on this forum (and they aren't usually IMBY questions either) most of the time I don't get answers or replies. Not sure why that is, but I'm not as knowledgeable as some other folks meteorologically, and if I don't understand something I ask so I can learn.

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Did you feel it not worth responding beyond my last post? You asked about conditions west of me, and I answered back that that they were, at the time, much windier than we were. Cast4 made mention of an inverted trough. I forgot that feature was shown on some of the models during various runs. Could that be the reason for the calm conditions for a couple of hours between the two periods of high winds I mentioned?

I wonder if topography played a role (somehow) with your winds....you are tucked in a valley right? I did notice a lull IMBY for a few hours, before the SE winds swung around.

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Sorry Ray, it's just that the few times that I ask questions on this forum (and they aren't usually IMBY questions either) most of the time I don't get answers or replies. Not sure why that is, but I'm not as knowledgeable as some other folks meteorologically, and if I don't understand something I ask so I can learn.

Maybe your questions are just too hard to answer. ;)

FWIW, I had a friend ~7 mi. away in Delran and there was a period where he was telling me the winds had really died down but at the same time I didn't feel that was the case here. I chalk it up to differences of perception, perhaps relative to what we were experiencing earlier, or perhaps the wind shifted direction some which could have resulted in a difference in sound volume (e.g., my condo is entirely east-facing).

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I wonder if topography played a role (somehow) with your winds....you are tucked in a valley right? I did notice a lull IMBY for a few hours, before the SE winds swung around.

My bet would be the valley. Google maps shows roughly 400-500' ridges to the north and south of town (except for the gap that 309 runs through). If winds were predominantly N/S, they would be perpendicular to the ridges to the north and south of town, which (IMO) would explain the relatively calm conditions. Worst winds would have been during direction changes.

If this is the cause, I'm curious to know if wind speeds were greater in the gap.

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Going on 48 hrs without power here in freehold boro..Hope everyone is safe out there!!

In Howell, my area was without power for nearly 41 hours (from 7:50 PM Monday Evening to 12:30 PM this afternoon). We are grateful to have it back as I was expecting it to be out for a longer period of time. Lots of damage in our area...overhead power lines down on a portion of Route 9 South.

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My bet would be the valley. Google maps shows roughly 400-500' ridges to the north and south of town (except for the gap that 309 runs through). If winds were predominantly N/S, they would be perpendicular to the ridges to the north and south of town, which (IMO) would explain the relatively calm conditions. Worst winds would have been during direction changes.

If this is the cause, I'm curious to know if wind speeds were greater in the gap.

I don't know as once I got home from work, I didn't go anywhere. I know the roar of the wind in the hills around town was unreal, and you could here when a stronger gust was inbound. Like I said, when we were getting the winds, I'd say they were somewhere around 50 or so miles per hour. I can't even begin to imagine what 70-90 must have been like.

Oh, and thanks guys for trying to answer the question! smile.png

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[updated 8:33 p.m.] The number of U.S. deaths believed to be linked to Sandy has risen to at least 56, according to a CNN tally. That's 28 in New York; nine in Pennsylvania; six in New Jersey; five in West Virginia; two in Maryland; two in Connecticut; two in Virginia; one in North Carolina; and one on the HMS Bounty in the Atlantic.

One death in Canada and 67 in the Caribbean also are attributed to Sandy. So, CNN's total death toll for Sandy is at least 124.

That was from CNN.com

Sad to hear.

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[updated 8:33 p.m.] The number of U.S. deaths believed to be linked to Sandy has risen to at least 56, according to a CNN tally. That's 28 in New York; nine in Pennsylvania; six in New Jersey; five in West Virginia; two in Maryland; two in Connecticut; two in Virginia; one in North Carolina; and one on the HMS Bounty in the Atlantic.

One death in Canada and 67 in the Caribbean also are attributed to Sandy. So, CNN's total death toll for Sandy is at least 124.

That was from CNN.com

Sad to hear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Effects_of_Hurricane_Sandy_in_the_United_States

Not sure how reliable wiki is but the site has the death toll higher...

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