Hurricane Sandy Pushes Farther West

The latest track of Hurricane Sandy has the storm pushing farther west, according to this morning's meteorologist reports. The National Hurricane Center has the center of the storm entering southern New Jersey or Delaware. 

This is a constantly changing storm and a more northern track, which is possible, would bring more significant impacts into New England.

WHDH Meteorologist Chris Lambert said the likely scenario, for now, would bring wind and rain Monday afternoon through Tuesday with wind gusts of 40 mph to 60 mph, mostly onshore, strongest at coast with up to five inches of rain expected throughout the storm's duration. Power outages are likely, along with beach erosion and coastal flooding during high tides. 

Lambert says it's a "very complicated and anomalous pattern," thus the timing is tricky. 

If Sandy maintains a warm core longer into the forecast period, it may hold on longer than some of the models project. If that happens, the turn northwest into the coast would happen farther north and put southern New England in a more serious situation than the current path would take it.  

The National Hurricane Center has the hurricane currently with sustained winds of 80 mph, moving north at 13 mph. The storm is expected to decrease in speed today, followed by a turn toward the north tonight, and a turn toward the northeast on Saturday. The center of the storm will continue moving near the northwestern Bahamas this morning and move north of the Bahamas tonight. 

Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center, with tropical storm force winds extending up to 275 miles. Sandy's wind field is expected to grow in size during the next couple of days.