Major Hurricane Sandy

The National Hurricane Center (for the US) released their report on Hurricane Sandy yesterday...

Some tidbits:


--- the "start" of the system was actually a poorly defined and weak tropical wave that left Africa in Mid Oct- some 18-ish days before landfall in NJ (not that it really matters, but I don't think many noticed that)

--- prior to making landfall in Cuba, Sandy was undergoing rapid intensification and (at the time) peaked out at 100kt sustained winds - just below category 3 strength. Realaylisis of the data indicates that Sandy actually peaked out at 105kt just before landfall in Cuba - upgrading it to category 3...

--- Category 3-5 Hurricanes are considered "Major's" and therefore Sandy can now use the name "Major Hurricane Sandy" for all time - even if she was only a "major" for a few hours.

--- Sandy’s impacts in the United States were widespread. At least 650,000 houses were either damaged or destroyed as a result of the cyclone, with the vast majority of the damage caused by storm surge and/or waves.

--- Preliminary estimates compiled from a variety of sources suggest that Sandy was responsible for at least 50 billion dollars in damage in the United States. This figure is highly uncertain and it will probably take several more months before a more accurate total is obtained. Sandy is expected to rank as the second-costliest cyclone on record, after Hurricane Katrina of 2005, and will probably be the sixth-costliest cyclone when adjusting for inflation, population and wealth normalization factors11. It is notable, however, that these preliminary estimates likely include damage from the non-tropical portion of Sandy’s lifecycle, and this complicates the comparison of Sandy to previous tropical cyclones.

--- In Canada, about 200,000 customers lost power at the height of the storm in Canada. Property Claim Services Canada estimates that insured property damage to be about $100 million CAD

--- Sandy hit a secondary peak of Category 2 (85kt) offshore of New Jersey - previously not reported above cat 1 at that time 



Full link here:

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/data/tcr/AL182012_Sandy.pdf