Hurricane Wilma has combined with the remnants of Tropical Storm Alpha to feed moisture into an area of low pressure in the Northeast…bringing those folks an early-season Nor’easter. The mountains of West Virginia picked up a foot of heavy, wet snow on Tuesday…7″ fell on the slopes of Killington, Vermont…and many others in that part of the country are shoveling a slushy snow this morning. Some are calling this “the perfect storm” in reference to the 1991 combination of a large low pressure, cold front, and the remnants of Hurricane Grace. Yeah, that’s the storm that sunk the Andrea Gail and caused George Clooney to go down with the ship in theatres a few years back.
2005 and 1991 have similarities, but also some differences. It’s impressive, but you won’t hear me call the Northeast’s weather “the perfect storm” anytime soon. I’ll let Stu Ostro, meteorologist at The Weather Channel, explain why. You can read more here.
Here’s what made the 1991 storm so extraordinary:
*Was a large and intense non-tropical cyclone to begin with (sunk the Andrea Gail).
*Then absorbed the moisture/remains of a hurricane (Grace).
*Developed its own eyewall-like feature.
*Moved west back toward the U.S.
*Was an intense, long-lasting event with severe, far-reaching impacts (very strong winds; huge waves, beach erosion, and major coastal flooding from New England to the mid-Atlantic; effects all the way to Florida and even Puerto Rico).
*In a bizarre final chapter, a tiny hurricane developed within the much larger, weakening circulation a couple days later and later made landfall as a tropical storm in Nova Scotia.
