ASK THE METEOROLOGIST
The most common type of weather changes based on location! Here in the Valley fog is very common this time of year. We also tend to see a lot of rain in the winter months in our valleys and snow across the high country. Unfortunately though, in recent weeks we have not seen much rain or snow at all. Hurricanes would most likely never make landfall here in Oregon …and that is true for the entire West Coast. This is due to colder ocean temperatures in the Pacific. We could certainly see the remnants of a tropical disturbance, meaning a weaken storm that once was a tropical storm, but it would be nearly impossible for a hurricane to travel this far north without weakening.
Switching gears to Madisyn’s other question — I have experienced a hurricane! I am from the New Jersey and was there when Hurricane Sandy made landfall ..before I moved out to Oregon! Hurricane Sandy was a historical storm and the largest hurricane recorded in the Atlantic Ocean. It was 1,100 miles in diameter!
Despite it’s size, the winds from the storm were actually fairly weak in comparison to most historical storms of comparison. In other words, Hurricane Sandy was downgraded from a Category 1 hurricane to a tropical storm just before making landfall in southern NJ along the Jersey Shore.
The reason this storm brought so much devastation was not from the winds, it was from storm surge. This is one of the most destructive impacts a hurricane causes when making landfall. Storm surge is simply the ocean waters rising as a result of the circulating winds around an area of low pressure. Think of it this way, the ocean is like a sheet of glass ..a flat surface. Winds circulating around a storm with be stronger over the ocean because there is no friction. This forces waves to be higher. When those winds and eye of the storm reach land ..the water has nowhere else to go but up. The coastline essentially forces the waves and ocean water to rise because it cannot go through or under the land. Again, this is what refer to as storm surge.
Because Hurricane Sandy was so large, the storm surge was tremendous with this storm. The tropical disturbance made landfall at the worst location for the Jersey Shore and the south shore of Long Island. This is because winds are strongest and thus storm surge strongest in the northeast quadrant of a hurricane. So, on the East Coast to the north of where an eye makes landfall ….winds will be strongest and storm surge highest. Storm surge was as high as 9′ along the NJ Shore leading to immense flooding and destruction.
Meteorologist Alyssa Caroprese