Sandy - scientific post-mortem

Starting to see some interesting analyses of Sandy which went from a warm-core hurricane, through an extratropical transition and morphed into a cold-core tropical storm. Bob Henson of NCAR News has an excellent post-mortem at Watts Up With That:

The hybridization of hurricane Sandy
Every so often, a quiet corner of research suddenly grabs the spotlight. Such was the case this week when a Category 1 Atlantic hurricane morphed into Superstorm Sandy (note- it wasn�t a hurricane when it made landfall, it was an extratropical cyclone � Anthony), wreaking tens of billions of dollars in damage and taking scores of lives in the eastern United States.

Sandy�s destiny as a hybrid storm was flagged to the public several days before landfall, when the irresistible name �Frankenstorm��coined by a NOAA meteorologist�went viral. (Of course, in the original Mary Shelley novel, it was the scientist rather than the monster who was dubbed Frankenstein, as Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null pointed out to me.)

While there have been hybrid storms before, Superstorm Sandy was a creation distinct in meteorological annals, as it pulled together a variety of familiar ingredients in a unique way. Sandy could be the storm that launches a thousand dissertations�or at least a few�and some of its noteworthy aspects have implications for hurricane warning in general. Warning: there�s a bit of unavoidable weather geekery in the material below, although I�ll try to keep it as accessible as possible.

Fascinating reading.