Fasten your seatbelts! Just as you thought it was safe to think of Spring and too early to focus on hurricane season, the East Coast could face a serious monster storm. While changes still can happen to take the storm out to sea, the models are increasingly in line for a storm to form off the East Coast by Wednesday and slam it with high tides, high waves, heavy snows and at least gale force winds.
Enough information is currently known for all interests along the East Coast should be on high alert. Especially coastline areas that are still reeling from the damage from Hurricane Sandy.
The storm, if it hits, will likely move slowly and take two days to clear the coast. This gives the storm time to build up waves to do serious coastal damage. Heavy snows are very likely inland and could also slam the cities from Washington, D.C. to New York if it follows the right track.
The storm would be very similar to the famous 'Ash Wednesday Storm' in March,1962 storm path that killed 40 people and cost over a billion dollars damage (in today's dollars).
The Ash Wednesday Storm, as it was called, caused everything from feet of snow to high winds and extensive coastal flooding.
The storm which formed on the 5th, stalled along the mid-Atlantic coast and blasted areas with heavy precipitation, gales and storm surge for days. Over 40 people were killed, over 1,000 others were injured and damage reached $200 million 1962 dollars.
Chief Meteorologist Elliot Abrams and the majority of AccuWeather.com meteorologists concur that the storm of 1962 and the storm next week bare great similarities on the historical weather maps and what is projected to occur.
The storm caused extensive damage to boardwalks and beaches and flooding in communities from North Carolina to Long Island with beach erosion as far north as Maine.
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), during the Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962, part of Steel Pier at Atlantic City, N.J., was destroyed and NASA's Wallops Island facility sustained extensive damage. Chincoteague and Assateague islands were completely submerged. Winds reached 70 mph and offshore seas approached 40 feet. Two feet of snow fell from Charlottesville to Winchester, Va., with 18 inches of snow falling as far north as the middle of Pennsylvania. Snow fell as far south as Alabama.
The keys to the storm for next week in terms of impact are how strong it becomes, how far north it turns and how long it lingers along the mid-Atlantic coast."
Video is from the famous Ash Wednesday Storm: