Remember the hand wringing prior to “Hurricane” Irene hitting the northeastern seaboard? Well, they do this every time. Soon no one will listen to the lamestream weather criers anymore, and perhaps everyone will fail to respond when a real disaster hits. This time, Matt Drudge, who is a disaster junkie, has been saving his red headlines for the stories about federally induced storm panic.
Sandy is one large storm, but as it’s hitting land it doesn’t rate as a hurricane if you pay attention to the wind data coming from the weather stations which feed Wunderground.com.
Pharmer picked two… One in Robbins’ Reef NJ, because there was news about evacuations in New York City, and one in little Assateague Island, out there all by itself, east of Maryland. Pharmer expects the storm to blast that island hardest.
The wind data is in Kilometers per hour on the weather station flags. Look at the graphs and you won’t see wind gusts above 50 mph, and sustained winds are much milder. You know what that means. It’s just like a summer storm, down on the Pharm, only lasting longer than usual.
It’s a mess, but not worth the big warnings to evacuate.
Why does the media cause more economic destruction than the storm would by itself??
Sandy makes landfall
Little Assateague Island Weather station. Remember, the 60 is wind gust in KILOMETERS per hour, not MPH
See the wind speed graph of Assategue with MPH scale on the LEFT
Weather Stations around Robbins Reef and NYC
Check the Robbins Reef Wind speed graph below.
Sorry weather criers, Sandy is not going to give Obama such a big chance to look presidential. In fact, we might even be able to get back to learning more about why Obama refused help to the Libyan Embassy in Benghazi when it was attacked.
Update: Pharmer sees the weather stations still tracking after midnight, with the wind not getting worse, and…….. you know the power hasn’t been knocked out yet.
Update: 6am 10/29 Winds at Robbins Reef, NJ are around 30-35mph, and gusts have not yet hit 50mph. The worst of the storm has blown through Assateague, MD, but another milder area is overhead. Winds there are calm and they’re getting a LOT of rain.
Update: 1:18 pm The storm has shifted direction and is heading north ward. Winds are picking up at Robbins Reef, with sustained winds in the 40s and with gusts in the 50s MPH. Unfortunately for Assateague, the storm turned before blowing further westward. It looks like the weather station is giving winds ranging from zero to gusts in the 80’s. As it is registering mostly calm winds, Pharmer thinks it’s down.
Wunderground has stopped displaying weather station data, due to bandwidth shortage as of just before 2 pm. The winds at Ocean city, MD have appeared to die down to the teens.
So far it looks like – Pharmer is right, the media has kept Sandy awfulized to a hurricane, though it hit as a tropical storm. But Pharmer is wrong about needing to evacuate. Flooding is turning out to be cause for evacuations in coastal areas not prepared for such Wetness.
The politics? REALLY! Obama flew to Florida to campaign yesterday, but was flown back to monitor the storm. What’s on the news? The Obama campaign is wondering whether the storm can be utilized to help his reelection effort. Tacky Tacky Tacky.
Pharmer sez, use Wunderground and your own gossip chains, NOT the media, to decide where to send aid to wet and cold people.
UPDATE midnight 1029 to show Graphs from 10-29
Robbins Reef NJ on day 2 This place is getting the most wind.
Assateague Island on 10-29, showing when it’s wind monitor broke.
Ocean City inlet, MD which is near Assateague, was picked up to display the wind on 10-29. Be sure to check the amazing change in wind direction which is shown at midday. This is close to the time that Assateague’s wind monitor wiped out.
Update 10-30-12
Robbin’s Reef, NJ on 10-30
Ocean City, MD on 10-30
Assateague Island’s wind monitor spinner remains busted, but the directional vane is still sending data. 10-30
Sandy is pretty much finished with these three locations, and now they can start mopping up the mess.
Why did the weather stations send continuous data to the internet? No power outage at those locations, near where Sandy made landfall.