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Hurricane Sandy Named Second-Most-Powerful Storm
Hurricane researcher says only 2003's Isabel was stronger
Hurricane Sandy churns over coastal Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina in this Oct. 30 image from NASA's Suomi NPP weather satellite.
In sheer power, Hurricane Sandy ranks second among modern hurricanes, beating even Hurricane Katrina, according to Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami.
Out in the Atlantic Ocean, Sandy was the most energetic tropical cyclone in history, thanks to its massive wind field.
Once Sandy ramped up to a Category 1 hurricane and slammed into New Jersey, the storm's integrated kinetic energy was second only to Hurricane Isabel in 2003, McNoldy wrote in a blog post.
"It stood out to me that this was a pretty unique case of a rather weak storm as wind speeds go, but huge on the impact scale," McNoldy told OurAmazingPlanet.
Integrated kinetic energy (IKE) is a new scale designed to better convey the destructive power from both a hurricane's wind and storm surge. It's a measure of the wind speed integrated over how wide an area the winds are blowing. The U.S. government patented IKE in 2007. The Saffir-Simpson Scale, used by the National Weather Service, only reports top wind speeds
The IKE scale helps explain why Hurricane Sandy, which quickly weakened after landfall, created such widespread flooding and damage, McNoldy wrote. The storm surge, combined with a full moon and high tide, affected hundreds of miles of highly populated coastline. The metric also incorporates the storm's enormous size: The wind field was so large that tropical storm force winds (45 mph) extended 485 miles out from the center at landfall. (Out at sea, the wind field reached a maximum extent of 520 miles)
In modern records, Sandy's IKE ranks second among all hurricanes at landfall, higher than devastating storms like Hurricane Katrina, Andrew and Hugo, and second only to Hurricane Isabel in 2003, McNoldy calculated.
Sandy's IKE was more than 140 Terajoules, meaning it generated more than twice the energy of the Hiroshima atomic bomb, McNoldy wrote. At any given moment, many hurricanes contain more energy than an atomic bomb in their surface winds alone, he wrote.
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- On the Ground: Hurricane Sandy in Images
- A History of Destruction: 8 Great Hurricanes
- 'Frankenstorm' from Space: Hurricane Sandy Satellite Photos
PHOTOS ON SKYE: Before and After Superstorm Sandy
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3 Comments
Although the storm was devasting, the South deals with much worse weather from Hurricanes every year. But of course the US is eastcoast centric not American centric. I remember IKE in Houston to be a 3 plus category Hurricane with total devastation to Galveston Island just 3 years ago. It resulted in millions of peolpe with loss of electricity and sustained winds in a major city greater than 110 mph.
November 04 2012 at 11:12 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyDr Jim
whatever, ask anyone who survived Andrews 180 mph winds which storm was stronger
November 04 2012 at 7:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThats what I was thinking and see it no where on here.
November 05 2012 at 1:02 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply