Hurricane Sara (2038) (Misteeer)

Hurricane Sara, occasionally referred to unofficially as the Atlantic Monster, the Superstorm of the Century, or Superstorm Sara, was the largest, costliest, and one of the most intense tropical cyclones on record in both the Atlantic hurricane basin and worldwide. The twenty-second tropical depression, eighteenth tropical storm, twelfth hurricane, and sixth major hurricane of the 2038 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Sara developed from a tropical wave over the Cabo Verde Islands during the early morning hours of September 24.

That fall, water temperatures in the Atlantic were some of the warmest on record, topping up in the upper 80s to lower 90s Fahrenheit in several locations across the Atlantic. Thus, Sara was able to quickly strengthen as it crossed the open Atlantic, and was already a Category 5 storm by the name that it made its first landfall on the American territory of Puerto Rico during the afternoon of October 1. It inflicted severe damage on most of the island, with sustained winds topping out at 190 miles per hour in coastal northeastern sections of the island and widespread rain amounts of 2 to 4 feet, causing catastrophic flooding.

As Sara passed over Puerto Rico, it gradually weakened, becoming a high-end Category 4 storm. However, it continued to strengthen after moving over open waters, becoming a Category 5 once again by midday on October 3. Even as Sara's eye passed over 100 miles east of the Bahamas, it still inflicted severe damage across the island nation, befalling eastern sections with hurricane-force winds and dumping feet of rain in some areas. It was nearly as large 2012's Hurricane Sandy, with measurable rain falling as far west as the Gulf coast of Pinellas County, Florida, over 300 miles from the storm's eye.

At around 6:30 AM local time on October 5, Sara made its second landfall near Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, United States, as a low-end Category 5 storm. It wrecked havoc on the Outer Banks and other large swaths of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Virginia, with portions of the Outer Banks experiencing sustained winds as high as 165 miles per hour and some areas receiving up to 5 feet of rainfall from the major hurricane.

Sara was a much larger storm than Sandy, which had been the largest Atlantic hurricane by diameter before Sara. Even as the eye passed over 100 miles east of the Mid-Atlantic states as it paralleled the coast, the region experienced tropical storm or even minimal hurricane-force sustained winds, over a foot of rain in many areas, and even mountain snow in swaths of the Appalachians. Snowfall amounts in the Mid-Atlantic peaked at 36.7 inches near Snowshoe, West Virginia - the location's first seasonal snowfall event.

Sara proceeded to move into cooler waters, with temperatures ranging from 75 to 82 degrees Fahrenheit, causing it to weaken slightly. However, it was still able to maintain its historic strength further north than any other Atlantic tropical cyclone since the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635, which impacted New York and New England. When it made landfall near Fire Island, New York on October 7, it was still a Category 4 major hurricane - the strongest hurricane to impact the region since records began being kept in the 19th century. Hurricane-force winds extended approximately 86 miles from the storm's center, and tropical-storm winds approximately 159 miles.

During the early morning hours of October 8, Sara made another landfall near New Haven, Connecticut, as a high-end Category 2 hurricane that had very recently lost major hurricane status over the Long Island Sound. As in other locations that it had impacted, however, extreme winds, while catastrophic, were not the main cause of the devastation - extreme flooding, with up to 5 feet of rain falling, and 30-foot storm surge, with isolated waves as high as 90 feet, in many coastal locations were.

Sara devastated much of New England, with hurricane-force winds and extremely heavy rain in southern and eastern areas, along with blizzard conditions created by heavy snow and tropical-storm force winds in the higher elevations of northern and westernmost New England. Snowfall totals in New England peaked at 56.3 inches at the summits of Mount Washington, New Hampshire and Mount Mansfield, Vermont, with widespread snow totals of 1-3 feet as far south as the Berkshires of Massachusetts and Connecticut and as far west as the eastern portion of upstate New York's Adirondack Mountains.