The big weather story this week has been hurricane sandy merging with a cold front to make a superstorm. Many Central Texans want to know how this storm compares to the perfect storm of 1991.
Both Superstorm Sandy and the "Perfect Storm" of 1991 may look like twins and formed the same way but finished with major differences.
They did go on different paths. The ‘91 storm actually started as Hurricane Grace. It basically did a loop off the east coast. Hurricane Sandy went parallel to the east coast before veering toward the mid-Atlantic.
Both Grace and Sandy merged with a cold front turning them into superstorms. But here is the main difference. Hurricane Grace met up with the cold front and the Canadian system over the Atlantic. Sandy collided with a cold front over land.
So to compare the two even more, they both happened late in the season and formed into gigantic storms and covered a ton of real estate. Sandy was a little bit stronger with wind gusts at 90 mph. Sandy hit land and Grace stayed offshore so this year's superstorm has created much more damage which will lead to a bigger price tag. The "Perfect Storm" of 1991 did $200 million worth of damage and Sandy is estimated to cost the U.S. billions of dollars. There is a very good chance the name Sandy will be retired.
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