<P> In the United States, Hurricane Sandy affected 24 states, including the entire eastern seaboard from Florida to Maine and west across the Appalachian Mountains to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage in New Jersey and New York . Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city . Damage in the United States amounted to $71.4 billion (2013 USD). In Canada, two were killed in Ontario and an estimated $100 million (2012 CAD) in damage was caused throughout Ontario and Quebec . </P> <P> Hurricane Sandy began as a low pressure system which developed sufficient organized convection to be classified as Tropical Depression Eighteen on October 22 south of Kingston, Jamaica . It moved slowly at first due to a ridge to the north . Low wind shear and warm waters allowed for strengthening, and the system was named Tropical Storm Sandy late on October 22 . Early on October 24, an eye began developing, and it was moving steadily northward due to an approaching trough . Later that day, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) upgraded Sandy to hurricane status about 65 mi (105 km) south of Kingston, Jamaica . At about 1900 UTC that day, Sandy made landfall near Kingston with winds of about 85 mph (140 km / h). Just offshore Cuba, Sandy rapidly intensified to winds of 115 mph (185 km / h), and at that intensity it made landfall just west of Santiago de Cuba at 0525 UTC on October 25 . </P> <P> After Sandy exited Cuba, the structure became disorganized, and it turned to the north - northwest over the Bahamas . By October 27, Sandy was no longer fully tropical, and despite strong shear, it maintained convection due to influence from an approaching trough; the same trough turned the hurricane to the northeast . After briefly weakening to a tropical storm, Sandy re-intensified into a hurricane, and on October 28 an eye began redeveloping . The storm moved around an upper - level low over the eastern United States and also to the southwest of a ridge over Atlantic Canada, turning it to the northwest . Sandy briefly re-intensified to Category 2 intensity on the morning of October 29, around which time it had a wind diameter of over 1,150 miles (1,850 km), and a central pressure of 943 mb, which set records for many cities across the Northeastern United States for the lowest pressures ever observed . The convection diminished while the hurricane accelerated toward the New Jersey coast, and the hurricane was no longer tropical by 2100 UTC on October 29 . About 2 / hours later, Sandy made landfall near Brigantine, New Jersey, with winds of 80 mph (130 km / h). During the next four days, Sandy's remnants drifted northward and then northeastward over Ontario, before merging with another low pressure area over Eastern Canada on November 2 . </P> <P> On October 23, 2012, the path of Hurricane Sandy was correctly predicted by the European Centre for Medium - Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) headquartered in Reading, England nearly eight days in advance of its striking the American East Coast . The computer model noted that the storm would turn west towards land and strike the New York / New Jersey region on October 29, rather than turn east and head out to the open Atlantic as most hurricanes in this position do . By October 27, four days after the ECMWF made its prediction, the National Weather Service and National Hurricane Center confirmed the path of the hurricane predicted by the European model . The National Weather Service was criticized for not employing its higher - resolution forecast models the way that its European counterpart did . A hardware and software upgrade completed at the end of 2013 enabled the weather service to make more accurate predictions, and do so far more in advance than the technology in 2012 had allowed . </P>

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