Maybe It's Time to Factor Hurricane Sandy into Halloween Plans

So we noted yesterday that it wasn’t quite time to flip out about Tropical Storm Sandy in New England, and what a difference a day can make because, ha, it’s probably time to at least start considering that Hurricane Sandy will hit Boston, so factor it into your Halloween plans. Note how the National Hurricane Center’s fearsome cone puts the storm right to our south sometime in the next four to five days. That means there’s a good chance we’ll at least see some effects from Hurricane Sandy in Boston:

Even so, as CBS Boston’s Terry Eliason points out, this is the result of a pretty dramatic change from yesterday’s storm path, which means that, of course, there could be more dramatic changes before Hurricane Sandy makes it to New England. Again, no need to run out to the store right now for non-perishables. To get a sense of the range of options the storm has just now, check out Weather Underground’s “spaghetti plot,” a which outlines six options for Hurricane Sandy’s path:

Boston.com’s David Epstein describes this kind of plotting with a nice metaphor:

“It’s like asking who will win the world series in April, August and October. The closer you get to the actual event the more the lines converge on one solution. The closer we get to Sunday and Monday the more these plots are going to show one consensus forecast.”

For now, we just plan on keeping an eye on the path in the next few days. And maybe planning a costume accordingly. Maybe we’ll be the Gordon’s Gorton’s fisherman. Or Rihanna. Or Danny Zuko.