Sandy at Atlantic City

Analysis of data from Sandy as it moved toward Atlantic City, NJ on October 29, 2012 and then as it moved inland and away from Atlantic City on October 30th, 2012.

by Sci5

Graph 1: Air Temperature

We made several different graphs in TinkerPlots of the observations from the Atlantic City, NJ airport to try to figure out what happened in the storm.



Graph 1: As Sandy moves toward land, the air temperature gets warmer. At landfall, the air temperature peaks at about 17°C. As Sandy moves inland, the temperature cools. After Sandy, the air temperature is about 6°C.

This shows that Sandy was bringing warm air. The air was warmed because of the warm sea surface of the Atlantic, which was about 5°C warmer than usual for this time of year.

After Sandy, the wind was blowing from the South-West, bringing colder air into the area.

Graph 2: Wind Speed

Graph 2: As Sandy came closer to land, the winds increased. The winds peaked at about 40 mph. As the eye of the storm passed over Atlantic City, there was sudden drop in wind speed, down to about 10 mph. After about an hour, the winds quickly rose back to peak strength.

As Sandy moves inland and away from Atlantic City, the wind speeds drop significantly.

Graph 3: Air Pressure

Graph 3: As Sandy moves toward Atlantic City, the air pressure gets lower. As the air pressure gets lower, the storm gets stronger. The air pressure is at its lowest when the eye is passing over Atlantic City.

After landfall and Sandy is moving inland, the air pressure gets higher. As the air pressure increases, the storm gets weaker.

Graph 4: Wind Speed vs Air Pressure

Graph 4: If we look at wind speed and air pressure together, we see a diagonal line from upper left to lower right.

This means these two measurements must be connected.

As air pressure decreases, the wind speeds increase.

Tropical cyclones are stronger when there is lower air pressure. Areas of high air pressure cause the storms to get weaker.

Graph 5: Precipitation

Graph 5: There was not very much rain during this storm. It peaked at about 0.6 inch per hour.

The heaviest rains were as Sandy made landfall.

The air in front of Sandy had more moisture than the air behind Sandy.

Sandy caused warm, humid air to blow from off the Atlantic from the East as it approached. After Sandy left, colder, drier air blew in from off the land South-west of Atlantic City.

NASA IceBridge

	NASA ICE (@NASA_ICE)
11/21/12, 1:48 PM New story and video about #IceBridge mission over Recovery Glacier: Anatomy of an IceBridge Mission. go.nasa.gov/10uIcfE

Sci5: Analysis of Sandy

Sci5 is investigating data from JFK airport for October 29-30, 2012. The approach and departure of Superstorm Sandy.

The first graph we made was to look at the changes in air temperature over the course of Sandy at JFK airport.

We noticed that as Sandy approached, the air got warmer and then as Sandy departed the air got cooler. The temperature peaked at about 4:30 pm on 10/29 when Sandy was at its closest point to us.

At Mark Elliot's (of The Weather Channel) suggestion, we looked at the direction the winds were coming from and how they related to the temperature of the air.

As Sandy approached, it was pulling air from the NE. This air was coming from off the Atlantic Ocean and was warmer and more humid. As Sandy departed, the winds switched around to the SW, pulling dryer and colder air from inland.

Stay tuned for more analysis.

Sandy Stories

These are first-hand accounts, observations, and reflections on the experiences of 4th and 5th Graders as they rode out the storm known as "Hurricane Sandy," "Superstorm Sandy," or "Frankenstorm" the week of 29 October 2012.

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Track of Hurricane Sandy
Position of Landfall

"A few days ago my family and I collected all lot of toys and clothing for kids in shelters who were effected by Hurricane Sandy. It was great knowing that I was making someone who is less fortunate than I am happier. It also let me appreciate how much I have, and that there are people in the world who now do not have anything."

"The Sandy storm did not affect me although I do hope that everyone is ok.  I heard that Staten Island and Fire Island got it really bad.  On Monday night, the night that the hurricane made landfall, I looked out the window from my apartment and saw that the scaffolding on the street across from me was flying around and almost hit a car moving on the street.  There were a lot of pieces of metal going around and around."

"The worst part for me is when your house loses power. The first time it happend my heart jumped but luckily we were prepared so, we had candles already lit. The second time we lost power I stood up immediately and started breathing very hard.  It was very quiet for a moment and I was very scared  because we were not prepared and couldn't find the candles and flash lights, we rushed to go find the candles but then the power went on again. That is the worst part for me it always makes me very aware of every little sound and motion and it makes me freeze like a statue. Your senses go up very quick and your mind starts to get frantic because of the sudden total darkness."

"The night it happend there was a huge tree by my bedroom window and it was swaying very hard which I thought was very unusual for trees and my parents told me to stay out of my room. When I openend my window it sounded almost as piercing as when you open the car window on a highway."

"Nothing really hit me but I was watching the crane that was dangling and it looked pretty bad. I also was watching Atlantic City and almost the whole Atlantic City was flooded. I barely got any rain but it was pretty windy neer me, and some trees fell.

"I saw the water of the Hudson River rise up the Palisades.  This was the highest I have ever seen the river flood."

"During Hurricane Sandy when I went into my room I saw the glass shaking and it was cold inside because the wind was moving the glass back and letting the cold air in. I pushed the window back and I felt how strong the wind was. It was a little frightening to think that the window might break, but luckily it stayed in one piece."

"In the storm, 3 trees fell on people's houses in my neighborhood  and the one that I saw was about 6 inches away from falling on my neighbor's house. The wind was LOUD then soft and it made a wooshing sound on and on that night. We thought the power or electricity would go out about an hour before it did but the lights where flickering."  

"My Story about Sandy is that during the storm, I had power. Then on Saturday the 3rd of November, a circuit blew on the pole that held all the power cords to all the people on my street, and we think it's because a tree was putting pressure on the cords. I wasn't going to get power until November 9th, on Friday, but I got it back on November 5th, on Monday."

"It really didn't hit us that bad. Probably not as bad as it hit you. A tree fell down in our neighborhood."

"In my neighborhood a tree fell it brought up the whole sidewalk. I was so scared because it fell on my friend's grandma's car. I was also sacred that the tree would go the the other way and damage the building next to it. Up the street three cars had power lines fall on them. Near my local library a tree fell on a house and near the library they lost power. It was a scary time!"

How Astronomy Came of Age

	Guardian Science (@guardianscience)
11/2/12, 12:14 PM How astronomy came of age: changing models of the solar system - video gu.com/p/3bfz6/tf

This is a really good video that explains how our understanding of the cosmos has changed as we have learned more. Science is not static. Keep asking questions keep questioning what we think we understand. 

SlowMo Sandy from Earth Observatory (@NASA_EO)

	Earth Observatory (@NASA_EO)
10/31/12, 6:51 PM Hurricane Sandy in slow motion, October 25-31 from GOES-14 Rapid Scan bit.ly/T8B04u

Tweet from NASA Goddard Time Lapse of Sandy

	NASA Goddard (@NASAGoddard)
10/30/12, 2:18 PM Check out this global view of Hurricane Sandy's birth to landfall [hd video] bit.ly/VBD70O