Just in time for Halloween, the Washington area is going to experience some weather that gets more and more terrifying with each revised forecast. And if the predictions hold true, the region could experience intense winds, historic flooding, torrential rains and even up to a foot of snow in some places.
Hurricane Sandy, a Category 2 storm that is currently battering the Bahamas before it reaches Florida tonight, will be working its way up the East Coast starting Sunday evening. At the same time, an early winter storm out west and a cold-air front from up north are closing in on the mid-Atlantic, too. The three systems are aligned to merge, creating what some forecasters are already nicknaming a “Frankenstorm.”
The hurricane part of the storm is likely to come ashore somewhere in New Jersey on Tuesday morning, said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecaster Jim Cisco. But this is a storm that will affect a far wider area, so people all along the East have to be wary, Cisco said.
Coastal areas from Florida to Maine will feel some effects, mostly from the hurricane part, he said, and the other parts of the storm will reach inland from North Carolina northward.
And while we’re not going to blanch at the Garden State taking a wallop, the effects in and around the District will be plenty severe. The Capital Weather Gang’s most likely scenario predicts steady rainfall beginning Sunday evening and intensifying through Monday and Tuesday, accompanied by winds of up to 50 miles per hour, floods in low-lying areas, significant flooding along coastal areas in Maryland and Virginia, and between six and 12 inches of snow in eastern West Virginia and the Maryland panhandle.
The CWG still gives us a 30 percent chance of taking a direct hit from Frankenstorm, which could entail twice as much rain and sustained winds between 50 and 70 miles per hour. Some meteorologists are projecting the East Coast could take as much as $1 billion worth of damage from the three weather systems’ combined brunt.
But an imminent hurricane, or superstorm, or whatever you want to call it doesn’t need to be a reason to panic. Under turbulent skies, D.C. residents can always turn to a reassuring presence. Help us, Pat Collins!
