Hurricane Sandy will likely cause 16-foot to 22-foot waves ... on Lake Michigan. (Via Jessica Morrison)

  • oldtaku

    That can’t be. I asked Siri, and she said there weren’t any storms coming.

    But, obligatory Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0DqPSF2fyo

    • Daemonworks

      32 Down on the Robert MacKenzie
      Actually about the same thing, but Paul Gross was too nice to want to rub salt into the wounds of the sailor’s families, so took the basic story and fictionalized it up a bit.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d-t0959C3A

      • http://burntheflag.ca Jardine

        As I understand it, their original intention was to make it about the Edmund Fitzgerald, but there’s a huge issue with trying to use the song. Gordon Lightfoot gave the rights to the descendants of the sailors. So to get the rights to use the song in a tv show, you need to go to each of them and get permission. That’s basically impossible, so they ended up writing their own song and story. Paul Gross said it was for the best anyway.

  • BarBarSeven

    In New York City.  Listening to Woody Guthrie.  When New York City is buried in rubble & water, please think of this song… And please try to rebuild civilization without New York City to be your guide for pants cuff styles, hem-lengths, cupcakes or financial schemes.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqiblXFlZuk

  • atteSmythe

    I was skeptical!
    Here’s the NOAA warning page: http://forecast.weather.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=lot&wwa=storm%20warning
    And here’s the overview for the area: http://forecast.weather.gov/hazards/?wfo=lot

    • bcsizemo

      SHIII…with the occasional 33ft wave…

      Maybe all this global warming is pushing the storms up coast.  And here NC had pretty much gotten used to being a hurricane target.

      • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

        This is making me feel like there’s a lot I don’t understand about waves. 

        • Snig

          Pretend it’s all just particles?  No, still pretty damn complex stuff. 

        • vance_tam

           The storm is a massive low pressure bubble. That low pressure allows the ocean water to rise. The circular motion of the storm’s winds pushes that water along with it in a circular pattern. The wind forces the water into coastal inlets (rivers, streams, bays, inlets, etc.). In addition, there is a spring tide (a tide heightened by a new or full moon) contributing a few extra feet at the high tide.

          Hurricane Sandy is coincidentally trapped in the negative pocket formed by a northwest to southeast jetstream flow.

          Although Sandy is only a category one hurricane, the storm surge in the target areas is more like that of a cat 3 or 4.

          The circular flow is going to play hell on the great lakes, too. Areas that have never in memory flooded are in for a rough go of it. Storms on the lakes normally run northwest to south-southeast. Having the added winds from the hurricane is going to pile up the water along the southern and western edges.

          A lot of people are in danger from the lakes for the first time due to this storm.

      • IronEdithKidd

        I’ve seen 18 ft waves on Huron and I just can’t visualize nearly twice that height.  It’s not computing.

  • http://twitter.com/laughograms Michael Sheehan

    I really do wish we could stop with the [ADJECTIVE] [NOUN] is [SAME ADJECTIVE] headlines.

    • http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker

      Fun hater is fun hating. 

      • Jeremy Pickett

        awesome reply is awesome :]

        i hope people are safe during the storm, and i hope to see more *amazing* photos like the one of the earth in a previous BB article.

    • Jake0748

       Why do you wish that?  Come up with a better meme, and maybe some people will tag along.  Til then, buzz off.

    • http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

      I accidentally your post. Is it dehumorousnessificating?

  • http://storyspieler.net Roy Trumbull

    The lower end of Manhattan is only 40 ft above sea level.

    • nixiebunny

      Good thing the waves are only predicted to 33 feet. That leaves two whole meters of safety margin! The Wall Street banks would give you a big, big loan with those reserves.

    • Ipo

      Has to do with how waves are measured. 
      A wave with a 33 ft face is not 33 feet above mean sea (lake) level. 
      It is 33 feet above the lowest part of the valley between two waves, about ten feet above sea level (amplitude). 

      A storm surge is when the mean sea level of an entire area of water is raised, with little 33 foot waves rippling on top.  It is the real flood danger.  The storm surge height is not just determined  by wind speed and direction but also by the size of what pushes it. 
      Waves up to 115 ft in height occur in all oceans every year without making a splash onshore. 

      Bad graphic is bad, but here: 

      • Ipo

        I forgot to click.  

    • IronEdithKidd

      No worries, the 33 ft waves are possible on Lake Michigan.  You have other things to worry about today if you’re on the island.

  • SumAnon

    My office is right next to the Meadowlands. Our boss fully expects everyone to be in and ready to work tomorrow at 8am.  Hmmmmmmm.

    • IronEdithKidd

      It’s not worth your life.  Take a vacation day if you have to.  Stay safe.

      • SumAnon

        Lol, it’s not that bad out yet. Drove in, punched in, said “it’s starting to flood, I’m leaving”, and drove home. A good days work,

        • IronEdithKidd

          A day with the ferrets, then.  Enjoy!

          • SumAnon

             It’s a disaster zone. Snuggles began at 11, the mayor urges more tummy rubs and head scratches.

  • aljones15

    Surf’s up on lake michigan again. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YunBW7ELDzo   

  • http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  • cstatman

     freshwater, no sharks.  surfing without getting eaten may be possible.  I’l bet it is cold though.   and the sets will be erratic.  DO IT

    • Rich Keller

      Come up to Wisconsin. The surfing will be just as good as in Chicago and we have a rich tradition of cannibalism dating back to the 1950s.

  • http://profiles.google.com/joshuabardwell Joshua Bardwell
  • http://www.flickr.com/photos/stefan_e_jones/ Stefan Jones

    Found on Twitter:

    @LucyKafanov

    Lower Manhattan during Hurricane Donna in 1960. #sandy #frankenstorm pic.twitter.com/8cePUV4W

    Remarkable picture.

    • http://www.jjsaul.com Jim Saul

      That’s nuts.

    • http://www.ikaink.net Itsumishi

      And I’ve got people back home (Australia) asking why they’d shut the subway down! Because underground in big tunnels is exactly where I’d choose to be during massive flooding…

  • DevinC

    There seems to be some confusion about the use of the word ‘epic’.  ’Epic’ refers exclusively to mildly amusing and/or impressive phenomena, particularly when transmitted over the Internet.  Ergo, Hurricane Sandy is not ‘epic’.

    The word once had other meanings, which no longer have any equivalent term today and are only remembered by militant grammarians and other syntax nudniks of our time.  

    • danimagoo

      What an ‘epic’ comment.

    • Snig

      Izzard’s exploration of superlative inflation is more awesomely epic.
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rYT0YvQ3hs

    • FoolishOwl

      While I suppose I can imagine Hurricane Sandy being a child of a god, I really can’t imagine Hurricane Sandy founding a city and a dynasty.

    • http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

      There seems to be some confusion about the use of the word ‘epic’. ‘Epic’ refers exclusively to mildly amusing and/or impressive phenomena, particularly when transmitted over the Internet.  Ergo, Hurricane Sandy is not ‘epic’.

      Mildly amusing? I’m sorry, what?

      • FoolishOwl

        I think the Eddie Izzard clip linked by Snig explained the point pretty well.

        • http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

          I still don’t understand.

          Epic is used nearly identically as it was originally, except that it is being used as an adjective, and a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane larger than anything the Northeast has ever seen certainly fits with one of the characteristics of an epic to me. We could call it divine intervention (say Zeus casting down a storm in the Odyssey) or just the characteristic of its grand scale to legitimately call it epic (this hurricane will likely affect a huge area).

          Now awesome I will give you though I believe this hurricane could also be considered awesome as well as epic.

          • FoolishOwl

            The point with the Eddie Izzard clip is that superlatives get used for trivial things so much, that it becomes ineffective to use them to describe superlative events. DevinC was making this point sarcastically.

            Seriously, I’d be more inclined to use “epic” to describe human achievements with historical importance, as in the Russians’ epic defense of Leningrad in World War II, and “awesome” to describe natural phenomena that fill me with a sense of wonder and terror at their scale, as in Hurricane Sandy is awesome.

            And even writing that, I feel I have to point out that I’m not saying that Hurricane Sandy is a good and pleasant thing.

    • acerplatanoides

      Sure thing, Homer.