(WSYR-TV, Syracuse) -- Hurricane Sandy continues to move through the Bahamas today with top winds of 105 mph. Over the last 24 hours the storm moved across Jamaica and eastern Cuba with high winds and heavy rain. Sandy is projected to move north over the next two days. Hurricane warnings are up for the Bahamas and tropical storm warnings for much of the east coast of Florida where tropical force winds (39 mph or greater) are possible from tonight into Saturday.
Later this weekend, as Sandy moves up along the East Coast, it will interact with a storm developing in the upper atmosphere near the Mid Atlantic States. This unusual set up will cause Sandy to make a turn to west early next week While it is becoming more certain that ‘Sandy’ will strike the East Coast some uncertainty remains as to actually where this will occur and where the worst of the conditions will end up. This could end up happening anywhere from Delaware to Maine.
Impacts that will occur close to where Sandy strikes include hurricane force winds, a large storm surge and very heavy, flooding rains. This would lead to beach erosion along the coast along with power outages along disruptions to travel, especially airlines go in and out of Northeast hubs. If you have travel plans that take you into the Northeast or Mid Atlantic states early next week, you’ll want to monitor this storm closely.
In central and Northern New York we will miss the worst of the storm but that being said, it still looks like there would be some heavy rain (2-5”) and strong winds (gusts to 50 mph) at some point either Monday or Tuesday next week. As we head into the weekend and the exact path of Sandy becomes more apparent we will have more details.
