The Perfect Storm!
Do you remember the 2000 film "The Perfect Storm"?
The movie was directed by Wolfgang Peterson and starred Mark Wahlburg, George Clooney and Diane Lane and was based on the true story about the sinking of a swordfishing boat, the Andrea Gail.
It was a pretty good flick! Here's the trailer in case you missed it.
The story revolves around a very unusual and intense storm that formed over the North Atlantic in Late October 1991.
The storm was unusual because it involved the merger of a tropical storm and a strong extratropical cyclone.
It has been estimated that an occurance such as this would only occur every 50 to 100 years.
The storm blew up off the coast of New England on October 30, 1991 and produced winds near 100 mph and allegedly produced over 100 foot swells in the open ocean, dooming the Andrea Gail and other ships caught out at sea.
The reason I am bringing this up now, is because an eerily similar scenario may play out in the coming days if some of the recent weather models are correct.
Currently, we are watching a vigorous upper low pressure system coming onshore across the Pacific Northwest.
To the south, Tropical Storm Sandy was just named earlier today in the Western Caribbean.
The National Hurricane Center is expecting Sandy to move to the north over the next several days reaching the Bahamas by early this weekend.
According to this mornings run of the Euro weather model, the two storms will merge early next week around the Mid Atlantic and New England. Let's take a look at some of the progs...
Saturday Night:
The Pacific storm system is highlighted by the cold front extending from the Eastern Great Lakes down into the Ohio Valley. Meanwhile, Sandy is looming off the East Coast.
Sunday Night:
Low pressure develops along the front, Sandy strengthens and draws closer.
Tuesday Morning:
The two storms completely merge and form a MONSTER Nor'easter!
Should this occur, it would make major headlines and would absolutely batter the Northeast US.
This is probably still a longshot at this point, but it is definitely worth noting.
Also, if this scenario were to play out, it would bring a shot of very cold air our way just in time for Halloween! Muh, ha, ha, ha...
Meteorologist Jeremy Kappell
Where did you find the surface map for The Perfect Storm of 1991? I have been looking everywhere and could not find the site that has those maps. If you could help me out that would be great!
Thanks so much!
Michael Vasquez
Posted by: Michael Vasquez | 10/26/2012 at 02:36 PM
Hey Michael. I believe I found the surface map just doing a simple google search in images. I also found this one. http://www.google.com/imgres?q=the+perfect+storm&start=334&hl=en&sa=X&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&biw=1344&bih=695&addh=36&tbm=isch&prmd=imvnsub&tbnid=Z1abA-W6BK0cQM:&imgrefurl=http://www.weatherwise.org/Archives/Back%2520Issues/2012/September-October%25202012/retrospect-full.html&docid=T3lZq5E7fKL6SM&imgurl=http://www.weatherwise.org/sebin/l/e/retrospect-fig1.jpg&w=1101&h=810&ei=kEOMUPWTGYnjrAHK6oCoBA&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=57&sig=105944977503162724690&page=16&tbnh=141&tbnw=191&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:23,s:334,i:232&tx=118&ty=54 Hope this helps...
Posted by: Jeremy Kappell | 10/27/2012 at 04:28 PM