Tracking Hurricane Sandy

On October 22, 2012, Tropical Depression Eighteen formed in the Caribbean Sea. Six hours later it became Tropical Storm Sandy. Over the next ten days, Sandy moved northward, crossed Jamaica and Cuba, ran along the Bahamas, then turned nortward to generally parallel the U.S. eastern seaboard while the storm center remained 200-400 miles offshore until October 29. On that date, Sandy made a left turn, increased its ground speed until in made landfall in New Jersey, then almost stalled about 100 miles inland. Sustained winds speeds at landfall were still at Category 1 hurricane level. Its cloud field covered all the northeast quadrant of the continental U.S. and much of eastern Canada. Called a superstorm by the news media, the extent of high winds, rainfall and snowfall for several days was unusually wide. Hurricane Sandy ranks second in destruction only to Hurricane Katrina. What did the meteorologists at the National Weather Service see that caused them to correctly forecast the storm's turn and destructive power? In this lesson learners investigate and compare characteristics of Hurricane Sandy with Hurricane Katrina using NOAA and NASA online access tools, ESRI's ArcGIS Online, and ImageJ software; then apply the same techniques to analysis of other storms.

Next Generation Science Standards addressed in this lesson:
    4-ESS3-2     5-ESS2-1     MS-ESS2-5     MS-ESS3-2     HS-ESS2-4     HS-ESS3-1