Even at low tide, the stacking effect of the 48-hour NE winds in the creeks in estuaries in Tidewater is wreaking havoc. The previous high tide was the 3rd highest recorded ever in Norfolk….and the next high tide cycle (which includes all the piled up water from the previous) comes early this morning.

Fortunately, the cyclone has started to unwind from 992 mb earlier.

Not before it sloshed 10 inches of wind driven rain and wind gusts up to 75 MPH.

Definitely a nor’easter to remember.

The brand new 37-story luxury Westin in Virginia Beach is leaking on its entire eastern face. Friend of mine has already been contracted to clean up that mess.

I am in the wrong business. That is a $250K job for him.

Still hearing the surf shaking the ground a few doors from the beach tonite…but the winds are finally starting to subside.

Mother Nature has made her presence known.

Waiting for someone from the Obama administration to capitalize on this event and hail “climate change.”

Maybe they will be quiet on the issue for once because they realize how stupid they sound. Jim Cantore on the Weather Channel, a smart man, has already withheld his opinion.

Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA

Serious coastal flooding is occurring from northern North Carolina to the Delaware/New Jersey border, and the storm surge at Lewes Point, Delaware at 10 am this morning was 4.0 feet, just below the record high of 4.17′ set during the January 4, 1992 Nor’easter. Tide records go back to 1919 at Lewes Point.

I wouldn’t want to be on the beach at Lewes (pronounced “Lewis” for those of you not from the area) tonite.

But the movie is pretty neat and instructive.

Just look at the Gulf of Mexico, over there to the West of Florida, and watch the area up at the top adjacent to the southern United States.

Now do you see all that loverley evaporation coming off the shallower warmer coastal waters adjacent to the land, and then pouring northward over the land. But the evaporation just keeps on coming, and forming those nice cooling clouds that convey tons of rain from the GofM onto the land.

Totally wunnerful to watch how hurricanes or even pretender hurricanes like Ida do their job of cooling the planet.

Thanks for the movie demonstration.

http://www.examiner.com/x-29137-Tallahassee-Environmental-News-Examiner~y2009m11d8-Hurricane-Ida–Warmer-oceans-could-mean-longer-hurricane-seasons

http://www.stormvista.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=5505&st=0

The more nagging question is whether there is an association between global warming and hurricane intensity. But, of course, in the absence of global warming it will be purely virtual.

“Off the top of my head 3 major noreasters stand out in the past 50 years before Nov 15 . The veterans day storm of 1968 had 2 feet of snow in the mountains and hurricane force winds on the coast. Nov 1981 has subtropical characteristics with a pressure under 28.50 south of New England, it was a warm storm but 2 weeks later, a major snowstorm hit in New England.. October 1982 had a storm ( if memory serves me right) with 100 mph winds at the mouth of the Chesapeake (gusts) and high mountains snows in the carolinas.”

I know the GFS is all about HYPE but the runs keep showing the hype.

I hype not!

We need every bit of shoreline we can keep in VA.

Extratropical / Subtropical / Nor’Easter…..whatever you call it….it looks like a nasty cyclone…and while I love the waves….the beach erosion sucks.

Chris
Norfolk, VA, USA

Aren’t we supposed to see this hurricane just melt away into pretty white cotton ball clouds and rainbows from the cooler waters Bill Gates is ready to spend millions to achieve? (well, not him personally — Other People’s Money, natch)

While I’m sure the shear and the cooler temps _are_ tearing apart Ida, it should have some interesting data points for those willing to watch the “destruction” by cooler temps and high wind shear. After all, Mother Nature and the calendar are providing the conditions Bill Gates’ hurricane stopping patents were proposing to bring about.

Trouble is that even 50 miles of difference in track makes all the difference in how the storm behaves and that is too small of a difference to resolve this far out. If the center tracks onshore up the coast, it means rain for the Eastern cities like DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia but maybe snow for places like Elkins, WV., Hagerstown, MD., and Harrisburg, PA. If the center tracks offshore up the coast then you can get snow farther East like DC, Baltimore, and Philadelphia provided there is cold air close enough to get pulled in and make snow.

I find major nor’easters more fascinating than hurricanes from having watched them over the years growing up. The last one I experienced first hand was the Blizzard of ’96 which arrived in the first week of January, 1996. I left for California in April just as the last of that snow was melting in shady areas. The worst ones I can remember are when we would get two or more of them back-to-back separated by just a few days. 1996 was like this where we had several snow storms in succession. It was a record year where I was living at the time for total season snowfall.

So when a storm brews at this time of year in the Southeast, people in the mid-Atlantic keep one eye on the weather report.

NOTE: NOAA historical accounts of Maryland weather from the 1700′s to today.

… you probably should check the models 1st before saying that – pretty good consistency between models & runs that this system will ultimately move into the Atlantic & bomb out. See:

http://weather.unisys.com/gfsx/9panel/gfsx_pres_9panel.html

Joe Bastardi at Accuwx is intimating this could be a historical storm for the east coast – maybe one of the 3 biggest Nor’easters ever in November