Marine High Wind — Nantucket Sound, Atlantic North

2012-10-29 · near Hyannisport, Nantucket Sound, Atlantic North

Event narrative

The weatherflow reporting site at Kalmus recorded a 72 mph wind gust. The Nantucket Sound buoy (44020) recorded a wind gust of 60 mph. No damage was reported.

Wider weather episode

Sandy, a hybrid storm with both tropical and extra-tropical characteristics, brought high winds and coastal flooding to southern New England. Easterly winds gusted to 50 to 60 mph for interior southern New England; 55 to 65 mph along the eastern Massachusetts coast and along the I-95 corridor in southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island; and 70 to 80 mph along the southeast Massachusetts and Rhode Island coasts. A few higher higher gusts occurred along the Rhode Island coast. In general, moderate coastal flooding occurred along the Massachusetts coastline, and major coastal flooding impacted the Rhode Island coastline. The storm surge was generally 2.5 to 4.5 feet along the east coast of Massachusetts, but peaked late Monday afternoon in between high tide cycles. Seas built to between 20 and 25 feet Monday afternoon and evening just off the Massachusetts east coast. Along the south coast, the storm surge was 4 to 6 feet and seas from 30 to a little over 35 feet were observed in the outer coastal waters. The very large waves on top of the storm surge caused destructive coastal flooding along stretches of the Rhode Island exposed south coast.

Sandy grew into a hurricane over the southwest Caribbean and then headed north across Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. As Sandy headed north of the Bahamas, the storm interacted with a vigorous weather system moving west to east across the United States and began to take on a hybrid structure. Strong high pressure over southeast Canada helped with the expansion of the strong winds well north of the center of Sandy. In essence Sandy retained the structure of a hurricane near its center (until shortly before landfall) while taking on more of an extra-tropical cyclone configuration well away from the center. Sandy's track was unusual. The storm headed northeast and then north across the western Atlantic and then sharply turned to the west to make landfall near Atlantic City, NJ during Monday evening. Sandy subsequently weakened and moved west across southern Pennsylvania on Tuesday before turning north and heading across western New York state into Quebec during Tuesday night and Wednesday.

View location on OpenStreetMap → (41.6324, -70.2775)

Source: NOAA Storm Events Database, event_id 416778. Narrative written by the NWS forecast office that issued the report.