Was Hurricane Sandy "Hyped"?

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Friday, Saturday, and Sunday I saw blogs, Facebook postings, and even public officials (Mayor Bloomberg for one) either say the storm's forecasts were hyped or too dire.

So, on Sunday, well before the storm struck, I posted some metrics so you could measure for yourself whether the storm was "hyped."
It is too soon to know the damage toll from Hurricane Sandy but losses in excess of $20 billion are nearly certain. I think it may exceed $100 billion (worse than Katrina).

According to a Tweet from The Washington Post, 7.5 million homes and businesses are without power.

The peak land-based official wind measurement I have seen was 94 mph from the southeast part of NYC Metro.  There were many, many gusts above 75 mph in multiple states.

Hyped? No. Excellently forecast? Yes.

I'll have more on the quality of the forecasts later today or tomorrow.

Comments

  1. PickleOctober 30, 2012 at 8:39 AM

    Been following your posts since Wednesday of last week, and have forwarded them to my friends and family along the east coast (I am up in Boston). Thanks for your open and honest observations!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike SmithOctober 30, 2012 at 8:42 AM

    Thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousOctober 30, 2012 at 10:06 AM

    I think the people who forecast weather really deserve a huge thank you. So, Thank you!

    I live in Florida and we often joke about how Hurricanes are overrated, and to some extent the wind part is in my humble opinion; we had over 100mph winds near Orlando with Charley and it was bad we were out of power for almost a week but we are used to that and plan for it. I don't think people from the NE plan for living without stores being open, gas stations being open, etc., for a week. The storm surge, that scares me and if I lived at near sea-level I'd be gone.

    Mike and others were dead-on, or slightly conservative with the forecast and had they not been so accurate there would have been may more deaths. Many more!

    ReplyDelete

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