Weather Report: Storm to hit Jersey shore around midnight tomorrow
Flood warning, high wind warning in effect for eastern Monmouth
Hurricane Sandy has been moving northward through the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to hit land somewhere on the Jersey Shore just before midnight tomorrow night, National Weather Service meteorologist Mark DeLisi said at 5:15 p.m. today.
The storm’s pattern “differs from every storm that I can ever remember, in that it’s going to be moving up the coast off the coast and then suddenly start to get pulled inland,” DeLisi said in a phone interview from the NWS’s Mount Holly headquarters. “Storms usually move north or northeast and the farther north they go, the more northeast.”
It’s better to be on the west side of a storm like Hurricane Sandy, DeLisi said, but since the storm is being dragged westward, some portion of the Jersey coast will “take a direct hit.”
Before the storm makes ground on Monday night, conditions will have already deteriorated “to quite possibly a dangerous place,” DeLisi said.
According to a forecast for Asbury Park from the NWS, rain will pick up at 7 p.m. tonight while temperatures bottom out at 52 degrees. Northeast winds will come in at 24 to 32 miles per hour, with gusts up to 44 miles per hour. The chance of precipitation is 90 percent. New precipitation amounts between a quarter and a half an inch are possible.
Tomorrow, the forecast is for rain, which could be heavy at times. The high temperature is near 61 degrees. It will be very windy, with northeast winds 31 to 36 miles per hour and gusts up to 65 miles per hour. The chance of precipitation is 100 percent. New precipitation amounts between 1 and 2 inches are possible.
Tomorrow night, rain will be heavy at times with a low around 51. The forecast calls for “strong and damaging winds, with a northeast wind of 50 to 60 miles per hour, and gusts as high as 80 miles per hour. New precipitation amounts between one and two inches are possible.
On Tuesday, the forecast is for showers with a high temperature of 57 degrees. Southeast winds will be 38 to 45 miles per hour, with gusts as high as 65 miles per hour. The chance of precipitation is 100 percent, with new precipitation amounts between a quarter and a half of an inch possible.
On Tuesday night, the forecast is for showers with a low temperature of around 46 degrees, with south winds 25 to 29 miles per hour and gusts as high as 40 miles per hour. The chance of precipitation is 90 percent.
A coastal flood warning is in effect for the eastern Monmouth County area until midnight on Monday. A flood watch is in effect from 8 p.m. this evening through Tuesday afternoon. A high wind warning is in effect from 8 a.m. Monday to 9 a.m. Tuesday.
The nearest area for which the National Weather Service has a tidal forecast is Sandy Hook. Tonight’s high tide will occur there at 7:41 p.m. with a forecast tide level of around 8 feet above mean lower low water. The Monday morning high tide will occur at 8:01 a.m. with a forecast tide level of around 9.5 feet above mean lower low water. The Monday evening high tide occurs at 8:22 p.m. with a forecast tide level of between 11.5 and 13 feet.
“This last forecast is a forecast for record tidal flood,” the report reads. “It assumes that the path of Sandy will cross the New Jersey coast late Monday evening.”
