It is now Snowing in the NC Smoky Mountains at 38 degrees.

[RobertEarl]

Meanwhile the temperature around NYC is about 57 degrees. South of there, near the eye of Hurricane Sandy, the air temp is about 70.

It is warmer offshore of New Jersey than it is in NC. Even warmer than N. Florida.

This wedge of cold air that has come down from Canada, in the interior, is what is pushing Sandy to the north. It has been a theory of mine that cold air coming down through the interior pushes like a huge bubble on the warm air of the Atlantic forcing it to head north in a great counterclockwise spin. This situation just firms up that theory.

Satellite pictures of the coast off North Carolina, show great convection. That convection is a sign of cold air hitting the warm air of the Atlantic, forcing it to rise. And the outflow from Sandy is pushing the rising clouds north all the way into Canada.

Usually, when cold air comes down from Canada, it pushes weather systems to the east, out over the Atlantic. This time the cold front has run up against a hurricane. Indeed this time it looks like the hurricane is winning and will even push back to the west as it makes landfall around New Jersey.

I never recall seeing such a thing in all my years of observing hurricanes.

[Lint Head]

1. I bet the Smokies will look great after this.

I love the Smoky Mtns.

[RobertEarl]

3. It won't stick

The ground is too warm. Up on the high peaks it may last a few days, but it will be 60 by the end of the week.

Everyone who comes here loves the Smokys. The Great Smokys National Park harbors one of the largest biologically diverse areas of the world. It is truly a Tree Hugger's dream come true to be able to live here.

[CoffeeCat]

2. Very interesting...

Thanks for posting. It's like weather poetry.

When you say you haven't seen this before do you mean the confluence of the hurricane meeting the cold air from Canada?

Are these the same weather events that inspired The Perfect Storm?

[RobertEarl]

4. Yep

Usually when real cold air comes down from the Great White North, it pushes east, into the Atlantic, anything and everything. Including Hurricanes.

This time there is a north/south line. And now the hurricane is supposed to eat back into the cold front! Unusual, to say the least. The meteorologists will be studying this one for years.

[RobertEarl]

5. Why Sandy could cause lots of coastal Damage

Think of Sandy as a big ball of moving air spinning to the left. A ball of air at speed averaging 50 miles an hour. At the surface of the ocean, this air moves water in the same direction. This direction is from east to west.

Now picture the coast from NJ up and along New York's Long Island, as a corner. A corner into which the air is blowing all this water. Bottling it up, as it were, up against the coastal corner leaving it nowhere to go but climb the walls.

And, Sandy, being a low pressure system, is an air mass that is rising. As it rises think of it as sucking at the ocean surface. It actually may suck the surface up as much as two feet.

Put all this together and as the storm gets closer to land and if it is high tide by the moon, the resulting water could gain as much as 13 feet above what is normal levels.

It could, if it all comes together at once, be like a Tsunami.

The weather service people, rightly so, can imagine such a scenario. That is why they are warning people so forcefully. If you are less than 13 feet above normal sea level, you could be drowned by this storm.

[CRH]

9. With the warm of the hurricane and the cold from the north west, ...

What dynamics are missing from the potential to form tornados? Is it the updraft? Because in all the media coverage, there is nary a suggestion that this is a possibility, so there must be a reason it is not possible. Have any ideas?

[Warpy]

6. That is really the big story here

along with the storm surge up NY harbor. The snow accumulation will be massive from this stinker.

[applegrove]

7. Apparently the only model of a like event they have is "the perfect storm". But

that took place out in the Atlantic. This is over land. They have no idea what will happen.

[bongbong]

8. And, on cue

The climate change denialists will blame this storm on Liberals.

[CRH]

10. You bet, through use of DARPA technology those libruls have, ...

caused this diversion to interrupt the electronic black box voting guaranteeing a southern victorie..., ... ah, correct that, a fair election.

[RobertEarl]

11. Boston temp. = 64

Mountains here in NC = 36. At 6:12 pm Monday. 28 degree difference.

That ain't right.

It is close to 30 degrees colder in the south. Ok here the elevation is about 2000 feet higher but that usually accounts for just 10 degrees difference, but the higher latitude of Boston usually makes for -10 degrees so it balance out... usually. Today ain't usual.