Hang on to your hats - storm on the way

Hurricane Sandy looks to give the mid-Atlantic shore a real pasting. I'll post more this weekend as it gets closer to landfall. Also, weather in the Pacific Northwest will be "normal" this winter. -- Ruh-Ro From Cliff Mass:

A Faltering El Nino
The difference between a strong El Nino winter and a neutral winter (neither El Nino nor La Nina) can be a large one.

Strong El Nino winters are generally warmer and drier than normal. Less big storms. Considerably less snowpack in the Cascades and little, if any, snow in the lowlands.

Neutral winters bring "normal" weather and have a bit of a twist: the biggest storms--the greatest floods, windstorms, snowstorms--when they happen (which is rare), tend to occur in neutral years. Years that Seattle mayors need to worry about, as should the keepers of the 520 bridge. Buckle your meteorological seatbelts--its looks like a neutral winter is coming our way.

As many of you know, the signs late last summer were for an El Nino, albeit a modest one. But after a period of intensification, this El Nino has run out of steam and the current model forecasts (which are more accurate now because we are so close in time) suggest a neutral year.

Got my generators ready to roll and got the correct power plug on my big one. Oops...