The insufferable media has, of late, taken to calling all significant snow falls as "SNOWMAGEDDON". Puts a biblical doomsayer twist to it, doesn't it?

The wind isn't the problem, but several feet of salt water blocking runways etc will be.

Hurricane Sandy shuts down East Coast US
 

It sounds like flying into Sumburgh (Shetland Islands) on a winters day to me. Storm in a teacup....

It does frustrate me. A little bit of snow and we crawl to work in traffic that you could never imagine. I remember a newsreader saying "Britain under siege" as she reported on the snow. I walked to work that day, opened the loading bay, moved the snow out of the way and unloaded my first truck at 5:30am...

Seat 0A -

Since the 1990s the practice of airlines in the United States has been to shut down the hubs in the face of major storms. The recovery is faster this way, and the operations will almost certainly be back to normal by Thursday. On the other hand attempts in the past to keep running resulted in so much chaos that recoveries could take over a week.

The things that make this storm unique is a combination of the hurricane, a strong cold front moving from the West and the jet stream running between the two. Presently, the hurricane is about an hour or two from the New Jersey shore with 90 mph (145 kph) sustained winds with gusts to 115 mph (185 kph). The size of the storm and wind field is the largest I can ever recall, see the spread below:
http://i1166.photobucket.com/albums/...age3-popup.jpg
For the New York airports, both KLGA and KJFK are along the southern small end of the Long Island Sound. The wind is coming out of the North, forcing the water to the South and this evening with high tide at 10PM EDT, the expected water level will be ~9-13 feet above normal plus whatever wave action and the full moon adds to the equation. We are 700+ miles inland to the West and are starting to see significant wind gusts, later tonight 50+ mph. Three of the Great Lakes, Ontario, Erie and Michigan are or will experience 20 feet waves. On top of all this will be loss of electrical power from all the trees that will fall and based on personal experience, it takes anywhere from 4 days to two weeks to restore electrical power. So, this is an exceptional weather event that many people will remember for a long time here in the Eastern USA.

JFK's on the ocean side of Long Island, which makes its outlook a bit cheerier than La Guardia, which is right in the neck of the sound. JFK's suffering form the pile up of water at the entrance to New York harbor where the shore kinks round from New Jersey to Long Island.

This is a link to the NWS's current surge prediction:
Hurricane SANDY

Hey 0A,
Our country shut down before: flooding of '53
That was also a superstorm: KNMI (dutch), but the wind wasn't the problem, the tide was...

BTW I also landed in 60kts+ gusts, won't ever do it again, it's stupid.
And why did we land? Because nobody had the guts to shut the airport down!

FOX News reporting that water has just breached the levy at Laguardia and that at least one runway is under water.

If you are indeed driving a commercial transport jet, then I hope I never have to fly with you. Btw, I have landed a 172 in 45 kts. The landing was uneventful, but the taxi to the stand was, errrrr, interesting. Both myself and the a/c lived to tell the tale, though :E


AFAIK the Hunters never lost one, I think you may be referring to one of the NOAA flights. May be wrong, though. In any case, take it from someone who's been in there - it's not a place you want to find yourself piloting any kind of a/c. Hurricane Hunters excepted, of course. FYI, they have to fly a pre-determined course through the storm in order to get consistent met data. No weaving and dodging. 12 hours in and out and in and out in one mission.

Yeah Try to Fly, I'm about 80 miles from the coast in PA and have just lost part of my roof, storm in a teacup my ass......

“BTW I also landed in 60kts+ gusts, won't ever do it again, it's stupid.
And why did we land? Because nobody had the guts to shut the airport down!"

Why look for a reason elsewhere? Make that decision yourself; discontinue the approach, go around, divert.

With high tide in New York due to have passed not too long ago, is there any news of how G-BOAD is riding out the storm? Even on the hard now (I believe) on Pier 86, she must be low enough to be at risk at high spring tide with the predi ted storm surge.

I heard that she already needed more than a little TLC - I just hope that it won't be "convenient" for her to become a casualty.

JFK Currently under water.

Parts of NY Subway flooded.

Live news :

Watch Good Day New York Live - New York News | NYC Breaking News

can you set QNH to 940Mb in a jet then ?

172Driver

Look up "Swan 38" lost in the 70s in a Pacific typhoon. It was an USAF AD weather squadron WC-130. A couple of friends were in that unit shortly after the loss.

Baro reached 28.00" in ACY. There is a crane damaged by wind 1000' above the street in Manhattan. The size of this storm covers an area from southern France to Norway. Records set everywhere.

Good Luck FLCH

Local news was just showing the CANG (California Air National Guard) guys loading up their C-17's with helo's and crews, heading to NC (North Carolina) to start rescue missions tomorrow.
They talked of 12-hour missions after Irene, rescuing people off their roofs while on NVG's.

Hi to all...in my humble curiosity i have a question for those here who fly the big birds:

For example i am seeing through FlightAware and FR24 that for instance some airliners and some airlines didnt and dont deviate and flew over the "naughty Sandy". For example last couple of hours some canadian WestJet 737's from Florida and other sunny spots routed right above it on their way to Canada. So my question its as follows (and forgive me if its silly, but i really would love to know it):
-If per example one of these planes have a despressurization or other tech failure that could force it to start descending more rapidly to a lower altitude, how could they do it, right to the middle of the "RoallerCoaster"?
-Do they have any special procedures in these cases?
-Some other airlines/airliners keep doing the "roundabout" and dont pass over it, but others dont...any reason for that?

I just got off the phone with a friend who lives in North Dakota near the Canadian border. He said that since early this morning the snow has been nearly waist high and is still falling. The temperature is dropping way below zero and the north wind is increasing to near gale force. His wife has done nothing but look through the kitchen window and just stare. He says that if it gets much worse, he may have to let her in.