It's Probably Not Time to Worry About Hurricane Sandy Hitting New England

Update: Cyclones move fast, of course, so you can find our most recent coverage of the storm can be found here.

Original post: There’s a storm a-brewin’ down by Jamaica, and of course we in New England are already concerned about whether this will affect our Halloween plans. As always, it is helpful to look at the National Hurricane Center’s cone, representing the storm’s potential paths:

As you can see, we’re still far out enough that the projections aren’t even in our latitude. But projecting, you can see that if Hurricane Sandy is going to affect New England heavily, it’s going to need to take a sharp turn west. That’s possible but not likely, as CBS Boston’s weather producer Terry Eliason notes on their site:

So, in order for Sandy to have a significant effect on our weather here in New England, the atmosphere has to set up ever so perfectly. First of all, Sandy has to continue to strengthen as it passes over the Caribbean islands of Jamaica, Cuba and eventually the Bahamas. Then, the digging Jetstream has to arrive in just the nick of time, scoop up Sandy and drive her northward. Finally, a last impulse of energy would have to dive into the Jetstream forcing Sandy to pivot and slingshot westward back towards New England.

That’s a lot of “ifs,” which means it’s worth keeping an occasional eye on the news this week, but not worth buying out the store’s baked beans supply just yet. (Unless of course you plan to give it out to trick-or-treaters, but we don’t really recommend that either.)