National Post

Hurricane Sandy morphs into winter cyclone as massive storm’s reach spreads
The storm called Sandy messily morphed from hurricane into hybrid storm, losing the hurricane part of its name, but not the weather mayhem surrounding it.

The National Hurricane Center officially pronounced the storm a “post-tropical” cyclone Monday evening, as the centre of Sandy perched 32 miles south of Atlantic City, knocking at the coast’s door. The change is part of a transition into a more diffuse storm that is bigger and sloppier, even as its force weakened.

Sandy continues to merge with what was once two cold weather systems already dumping snow in West Virginia, forming what the hurricane centre calls post-tropical and others call Frankenstorm or Perfect Storm 2. Whatever name it visits as, it isn’t leaving the Eastern U.S. anytime soon.

(Top) A flooded street in Atlantic City, New Jersey, is seen at nightfall on October 29, 2012. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

(Bottom) Rising water, caused by Hurricane Sandy, rushes into a subterranian parking garage on October 29, 2012, in the Financial District of New York. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)