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It is imperative that many who contribute to the forums here be made aware that "Hurricane" Sandy is a hybrid cyclone. All the "traditional" rules do not apply to this cyclone. Currently Sandy's center is 385 ENE of Charleston, SC, 275 SSE of Wilmington, NC and yet strong tropical storm/gale warnings are being experienced along the Mid-Atlantic Coast. Sandy is a hurricane but her intensity is not guided by tropical "latent" heat processes; it is being sustained by upper level difluence...which is why there is this huge upper level "exhaust"...we associate tropical cyclones with upper ridges above them...not here...We're looking a very small "tropical" cyclone with convection on the NW side near the surface center and aloft what many of us associate with cold core upper oceanic lows. I'm not going to say there won't be an inner wind maximum...that's possible...but this event will include an outer wind maximum which can be what traditionally are called "hurricane force" wind warnings...there's storm warnings...50 knots...and then there are hurricane force storm warnings...65 knots...the entire NE seaboard can expect 50 to 65 knots not just one small area near the "eye" or "center" of the cyclone. Whether the center moves over your area is mute...your area will be impacted. There is no Central Dense Overcast; no eye, no inner eye core; this is an animal all to itself different and worse, it won't be going anywhere fast...there is an upper ridge over extreme eastern Canada...this cyclone's normal track is blocked, worse, this is a Negative Atlantic Oscillation upper high...very high heights aloft given the latitude of this upper high; it alters major weather patterns. We do not know if this is a 2012 version of the 1991 Perfect Storm or other hybrid weather events we've seen in past years.

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