Huge Storm Next Week?

The buzz amongst Meteorologists today is the formation of tropical depression 18 in the Caribbean. There is much uncertainty right now on what will exactly happen with TD 18 but most agree that it will form into Tropical Storm Sandy and will move east of Florida in the next few days.  Where it goes from there is very cloudy.  Currently the GFS model, has it going out to the Atlantic...not affecting the U.S.  However, earlier runs of the model had it smacking into the eastern coast near Philadelphia and New York.  The model took a big swing last night and is no longer saying that.  Other models such as the CMC and the Euro (which is one of the best in my opinion)  has been fairly consistent with the tropical system (Sandy) moving closer to the eastern coast from Florida and getting pulled into the NE (Pennsylvania area) by an approaching shortwave trough out of Canada.  They have the trough and the tropical system phasing together, creating a huge storm.  People are calling it the "Perfect Storm".  If it occurs, it would hit us a week from today.

Snowfall accumulations predicted by the Euro model
through November 1st.  It is way to far out to determine if there
is any accuracy to this but it is something to
think about.  This probably will not hold true.
Snowfall totals are forecasted to be around 2 feet.

Euro model on Halloween.  According to this model,
a large tropical system (Sandy) will move inward
from the ocean and will stall out over our region.
This scenario would lead to heavy rain and gusty winds
and possible snow as it exited.

CMC model on October 28th shows Sandy
off the coast beginning to phase with the
shortwave.  This is similar to the Euro model.

The GFS model, which is a popular model, has Sandy
moving out to sea away from the U.S. and the shortwave
moving quickly through our area. 

This potential storm next week has definitely made me excited. It is still so far out to tell exactly what is going to go on though. Possible scenarios...tropical system could head out to the Atlantic and miss the U.S. completely. It could possibly go up the coast and be pulled in by the approaching shortwave trough with cold air, which would lead to huge rain event for those on the east, and some snow for those on the west side (us). Also possible scenario, is the core of the system getting dragged into our region and we would get tons of rain. It is possible that this thing could be at tropical status in that case.  That means we could see tropical storm conditions here in PA, this situation seems unlikely, but I'm not crossing it off the list just yet. Energy from the shortwave phasing with the energy from the tropical system would lead to a pretty strong system.  Ultimately it comes down to the the forces moving the tropical system and the timing of the shortwave.  Some of the models are hinting at a perfect storm setup, a couple others aren't buying it.  One thing that is for certain, things will clear up as we progress closer to the date.  Models will become more consistent and will begin to agree with one another and we'll get a general consensus about the system. We could be hit with tons of snow and wind, tons of rain and wind, or nothing at all.  I'll have more updates later...