Now to Joe's post.
Oh I am glad it wasnt a cat 3. My opinion is that even as a cat 3 it wouldnt have been as bad as the media made it out to be, but thats my opinion, and stretches into territory that nobody can prove or disprove, so Ill leave that opinion at that. But the thing is, your wrong. "All the signs" did not put it as a category 3 up to NYC.
Oh yes it did. Every single model out there (these are mathematical models that take supercomputers to churn out results) was showing a hurricane that once it hit the NC coast, generally held on onto its strength. This was further proved by things such as size of the hurricane along with its pressure, meaning that it would take a hell of a lot of air to fill it up in order to weaken it. Combined with the fact that a jet was forecasted due north of the storm, which meant that air was going to be pumped
out of the storms way, effectively killing anyway to weaken it on it's way to NYC. And it did that just exactly, had these conditions not been in place, we could have had a Hurricane Don on our hands, that once it touched land, it went "poof".
And yes, it would have been extremely bad. The strongest storm NYC has had to deal with in the past was a Category 1 hurricane (1934 I believe), and New Jersey has only faced a
single hit from a hurricane since weather record began in the late 19th century. Now add on top the damage that Hurricane Bob did only as a tropical storm, and a Category 3 does look like the end of the world the Northeast.
Of course, maybe in the days leading up to it, and Im fine with that coverage. We dont know whats going to happen, and your absolutely right that plenty of mistakes will happen on a 10 day forecast, or even a 5 day, and they do happen all the time, hurricane or normal weather. But im talking about friday going into saturday when i closely followed the news coverage of it throughout the day. Even after it was almost certain that it would die down into a cat 1 by delaware and possibly tropical storm strength by new england, the media continued to act in the way they would if it remained a cat 3. Like I said before, I understand the worry about NC and VA, NC in particular, because there was reason to believe it would hit those areas hard. And it did. But im talking Maryland, Delaware, Jersey, New York. All these places were treated as if, to use your own words, it would be the "worst natural disaster in recent memory", when in fact it would merely be an above average summer thunderstorm for most places, with excessive flooding in some select places. Everyone, media and government, acted as if this storm endangered the entire coast and even places up to 50 miles inland like Katrina bearing down on New Orleans.
You don't seem to understand that a Category 1 in NC and a Category 1 in NYC are not the same thing. One place is regularly hit by this, the residents have been through such things before (usually every other year or so), building are built to withstand the effects, and people know what to do when a storm threatens. So when a Category 1 comes towards the coast, most people there do shrug it off, they've experienced it before, they know how to act. Now, when dealing with the Northeast, the last tropical system of hurricane strength to threaten the region
was twenty years ago. And that was a hurricane-turned tropical storm, if you want an actual hurricane, you have to go back
forty years. You can't even imagine forty years at this point in your life. That means that this is a totally new situation for millions of people, they have never been through something like this before, the infrastructure isn't up to code due the sheer rarity of this event, so of course a Category 1 will be "sensational" big news. And of course it would be devastating. And, no, this was not an "above-normal rain event" for the Northeast, unless you think that NYC recording it's wettest month of record (a foot of rain from this storm alone) is normal. And the worst isn't even here yet! 2 feet of rain doesn't just evaporate, no, it goes into rivers, which are expected to flood their banks within the coming days. This is a billion dollar disaster from a Category 1 hurricane; the news people knew this, the NHC knew this, and the government knew this, which is why there was hype surrounding it.
Yes, it COULD have been much, much worse. But once the facts start pointing towards a much lessened impact, maybe the media coverage of the storm should reflect that, instead of continuing to insist that it wasnt over yet and more destruction was yet to come that would overshadow what came before it. My point, is not for the media to downplay these storms, but for them to change their reporting so as to match the current status of the storm and maybe even take into account recent data and adjust to it, admitting it wont be as bad as they thought.
You once again seem to underestimate the strength of this storm. Regardless of whether or not this was going to hit at Cat 3 or Cat 1, this was going to be devastating to a large area and millions of people. And they didn't have to change to reflect the current situation, as the current situation reflected what they were saying. Large amount of damage to the entire Northeast, flooding rains up to 2 feet in some area, 10 foot storm surges across the entire coast, massive erosion, wind damage with winds in excess of 70 miles per hour, this is not something to be taken lightly. And just because your anecdotal evidence points to you not having your home flattered, it does not reflect what someone felt 20 miles away from you on the coast.
A little off topic, but are you a meteorologist or in a profession related to weather in anyway in RL? Im only asking because your sig says your the official CFC meteorologist
I am not a meteorologist, nor am I a professional in any sense. Weather watching is a hobby of mine, and I haven't delved any further than that. My sig is just what people earlier in this thread decided to name me
EDIT: And the continued mockery of a billion dollar disaster in this thread saddens me greatly.
