Uh, wasn't Sandy a hurricane strike?
Wait, wasn't there some BS about the feds improperly upgrading it to a hurricane in order to open the disaster relief spigots?
Sandy was a big storm because of where it hit not how bad a storm it was. It was a decent hurricane but it slammed into a dense target of homes and businesses.
Major hurricane strike means a Cat 3. Ike and Sandy were not Cat 3 but still put a major hurtin’ where they made landfall. Shows a problem with the current rating system.
Sandy wasn’t a Hurricane when it hit.
It was bad only because it hit during a close full moon which boosted the High Tide.
It also clashed and combined with another large storm
If Sandy hit a day earlier or later it probably would have been forgotten already
It was a cat 1. At least one measurement verified at land site, the anemometer on top of a bridge measured 75 mph sustained but that doesn't even matter. There were aircraft wind measurements of 80 mph offshore and as long as there are sustained hurricane winds somewhere it counts as a hurricane.
A major hurricane is cat 3 and Sandy was not a major hurricane in terms of wind. The storm surge was similar to some major hurricanes, but that was just bad timing and funneling effects.
By the time Sandy made landfall it had gone below hurricane force. But combining with a second land based storm at the moon-tide time caused it to wreak as much havoc as a full hurricane.