Technically it is actually the middle of winter, but Miami has had temperatures in the 80s for 15 straight days now. That's matched a record for the most days above 80 degrees in winter since records have been kept, according to CBS Miami. The previous stretch was in 2002, and it's expected we'll likely break that record.

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via Flickr

A taxicab crushed under a tree in Brooklyn

Although Hurricane Sandy did not, as some meteorologists and media folks predicted, cause the earth to split asunder and drown us all in magma, it did put a pretty big hurt on New York City and the rest of the Northeast. In Gotham, the toll was massive: Flooding all over lower Manhattan, millions without power, trees ripped out from the ground and deposited on cars. Oh, and all the Starbucks were closed. It may not have been as bad as Andrew or Wilma, but it was destruction to rival Miami's worst storms.

Despite the mass ruination, New Yorkers did not immediately resort to cannibalism -- not even those now located in the dark zone south of 34th Street. For most of the borough, life was back to normal. Restaurants were full, tourists were gawking at the giant billboards in Times Square, and joggers had reclaimed the streets. Even in the blacked out parts of the city, things were calm, aside from the occasional blare of sirens and the momentarily frightening adjustment to streets without traffic lights. Once again determined to get a glimpse of the city -- and still stranded and unable to get home to Miami -- I took to the streets to document life after Sandy.

See also:
- Hurricane Sandy Dispatch From New York To Miami: This Storm Blows
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via Flickr

A darkened New York City skyline

The morning of Monday, October 29 dawned cloudy and a little windy in New York City, which came as a surprise to the eight million or so inhabitants who had expected God himself to be pissing on the city at the break of dawn.

The national media had been breathlessly predicting the End of Days for the East Coast. The culprit: Hurricane Sandy, the most destructive storm named after a Grease character since Hurricane Kenickie slammed into Rydell High School and ruined the senior prom. The city was told to expect everything: 100-mile-per-hour winds, two feet of rain, blood to replace the East River. Accordingly, the city's airports canceled virtually every flight out from Sunday night straight through Tuesday, leaving tens of thousands of travelers stranded. That included your intrepid weather correspondent, in town originally for the weekend but now stuck here for almost the entire week. Guess what, Miami? This storm was not f*%#ng around.

See also:
- Hurricane Sandy: A Message To The Northeast From Miami
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Oh hey Northeast, how you doing? Oh, you're about to get a hurricane. It's a Category One. We totally didn't even hear about it. Oh, wait, that's all we're hearing about right now.

Listen, we're kind of jealous. A hurricane comes towards Florida and it gets maybe a 30 second mention on CNN. One heads towards the Northeast, and it's at the top of the 24/7 news cycle. However, we're sensing you guys are kind of freaking out. Didn't you guys go through this last year? Come on, haven't you adopted a "whatever" attitude towards hurricanes yet?
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Hurricane Sandy isn't expected to make landfall in Florida, but the storm will still be annoying as the outer bands hit the southeastern part of the state throughout the day.

Miami-Dade is under a tropical storm warning, meaning a lot of rain and wind are expected. The conditions are forecasted to last until Friday, so your Halloween weekend won't be a bust.

Not everybody will remain unscathed. The Category 2 storm, with winds of 105 mph, is expected to make a direct hit on the Bahamas, which is under a hurricane warning.

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via NOAA

There's no need to raid Publix for water, hurricane shutters, vodka and "Golden Girls" DVDs just yet, but you might as well prepare yourself for a miserable end of the week thanks to Tropical Storm Sandy.

The strengthening storm is set to become a Cat 1 hurricane before walloping Jamaica later today, and the National Weather Service has now put South Florida under a Tropical Storm Watch starting tomorrow.

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There's not that much to do over in Naples, Florida, so recording rain pouring down over your lanai seems like a fun idea. That's what Rita Krill was doing recently when all the sudden the vengeful weather Gods sent a fireball of lightning down into her yard.

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via NBC 6

Check out our previous coverage of Tropical Storm Isaac

As you probably noticed by looking outside Monday morning and seeing that everything was intact, save some larger-than-usual puddles and broken branches, Tropical Storm Isaac wasn't exactly an apocalyptic event for Miami. Sure, it did result in some canceled flights, power outages, and scheduling issues for a bunch of rich white men in Tampa. But as the first storm of the hurricane season, it was a bust, giving Miami-Dade a day or two of wind, rain, and piles of palm fronds on the streets.

That didn't stop local news organizations from beginning the imminent terror watch late Friday night without letting up throughout the weekend. The updates came fast and furious: Where Isaac was headed, where we could get plywood and sandbags, whether or not we should begin bashing in our neighbors' heads to feast upon the goo inside. They even went to their readers and viewers for photos and opinions on just how hard it was raining.

Not to be outdone, we here at the New Times went to Twitter and called upon our own intrepid audience to send us their disaster photos. Here are some of the best responses we got.

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The worst of Tropical Storm Isaac has officially blown through the Keys and into the Gulf this morning, though its sloppy remains are still drenching Dade. Riptide's storm experts have begun tallying the damage Isaac wrought in Florida: 80,000 or so without power, minor flooding here and there, and dozens of TV newspeople still gasping for breath after furiously chasing every report of a downed palm frond in the metro area.

How will you remember Isaac's mild inconvenience devastation?

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Tropical Storm Isaac = RATINGS!!!!!!!!

If you're like us at Riptide, your eyes have been rolling all morning watching NBC 6, CBS 4, Local 10, and WSVN make fools of themselves reporting on the "awful" conditions brought by Tropical Storm Isaac. Yeah, there's been some rain and wind, and Miami even experienced some brownouts last night, but the hysteria the local channels are drilling into viewers seems a bit laughable and disturbing at this point. It gives people a reason not to trust the warnings the next time a really dangerous storm heads our way.

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