Hurricane or Post Tropical Cyclone?

October 29, 2012 6:38 PM

Controversy has erupted over the National Hurricane Center's decision to not issue hurricane or tropical storm warnings for northeast coastal locations slammed by Sandy today. The NHC was betting that Sandy would lose its tropical characteristics before making landfall in New Jersey as "Post Tropical Cyclone Sandy". And warnings are only given for storms that meet the criteria of a true tropical cyclone. Here is their statement describing why they made that decision. But to make matters more confusing the NHC was still calling Sandy a Hurricane as of 5:00 PM EDT today...just an hour away from making land fall at Atlantic City and long after communities on the coast from Massachusetts to Virginia were experiencing storm surge flooding and hurricane force wind gusts. The meteorologists over at AccuWeather strongly disagree with the NHC decision and believe the failure to issue hurricane warnings could potentially mislead the public about the actual risks involved.
posted by Seymour Zamboni (9 comments total)

Breaking: Thanks for the ratings!
(What part of Bowling for Columbine didn't you understand?)
posted by Fupped Duck at 6:48 PM on October 29, 2012

Surely the key bit is the following:

By using non-tropical warnings in these areas from the start, we avoid or minimize the significant confusion that could occur if the warning suite changed from tropical to non-tropical in the middle of the event.

That seems hard to quibble with.
posted by hoyland at 6:49 PM on October 29, 2012 [1 favorite]

Of course, the case can be made to keep calling it a tropical storm, even if you're wrong, but I don't know that you can argue it would be prudent to change partway through.
posted by hoyland at 6:51 PM on October 29, 2012

Flagged for scaremongering and PepsiBlue (AccuWeather appears to be attempting to turn this into a marketing event), but geesh, AccuWeather, there has been no shortage of advance warning about Sandy.
posted by notyou at 6:52 PM on October 29, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'm sure Obama's behind it all.
posted by philip-random at 6:54 PM on October 29, 2012

OK, the point here being exactly what? People weren't given sufficient warning to get the hell out? I've been hearing about this for days, and I'm in friggin' Michigan. I nearly evacuated to the Upper Peninsula!
posted by HuronBob at 6:54 PM on October 29, 2012

Tempest in a tempest.
posted by SteelyDuran at 6:56 PM on October 29, 2012 [5 favorites]

Yeah, I read about the decision not to switch warnings last night in a briefing that I linked in the existing Sandy thread, and it seemed reasonable to me. The goal was not to confuse the public. Meanwhile I think everybody that there was a bad storm coming with wind and flooding and to get ready.
posted by Miko at 6:57 PM on October 29, 2012

Agreed. Don't confuse the public.

Critics gotta criticize, I guess.
Armchair weathermen.
posted by BlueHorse at 7:07 PM on October 29, 2012