Hurricane Sandy Could Be a Major Hit or a Miss

The Carribean-born Hurricane Sandy made landfall over Cuba this morning as a Category 2 hurricane, bringing with sustained winds of 105 mph. Forecasters predict the storm will turn north and head toward the East Coast.

From there, computer models differ on where Sandy will go next. One takes it northeast and out to sea over the Atlantic. But another, more reliable model, says Sandy will make landfall somewhere near Delaware, the National Weather Service says in its most recent update on the storm this morning.

If so, Pennsylvania may see hazardous weather conditions this weekend and into next week as Sandy makes its way up the U.S., according to the National Weather Service.

"Hurricane Sandy is is forcast to transition into a large tropical coastal storm as it moves northward and may affect [Bucks County and Montgomery County] Sunday through Tuesday timeframe. Heavy rainfall, high winds, coastal flooding and beach erosion are possible with this storm."

NWS has yet to issue a hazardous weather alert for Southeastern Pennsylvania, but is still predicting heavy rain.

Whether the storm moves out to sea or up the coast, the National Weather Service says, a large area could still be affected based on the size of the predicted storm. They also expect it to be a slow moving storm which could mean more damage for the area it crosses. 

"This will ultimately depend on the eventual track and evolution of Sandy," the NWS said. "The storm may very well just move out to sea and have little, if any, impact on our weather."

"An extra set of balloon-borne radiosondes is going to be launched at 2 p.m. (today) all across the U.S., which should help tomorrow evening's model runs make better forecasts of where Sandy might go. Extra radiosondes will be launched every 6 hours through Saturday afternoon," reports Weather Underground forecaster Jeff Masters.

Come back to Patch for updates as we follow the path of Sandy. We'll let you know when and if it is headed our way.