Frankenstorm? In Northeast Pennsylvania, Superstorm Sandy turned out to be the Artful Dodger.
The heart of the storm stayed south and west of the region, dropping heavier rain and driving stronger winds in unluckier corners of the state.
Sandy's path was influenced by a large, upper-level trough, or low-pressure system, dipping down with the jet stream, Theodore Champney, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Binghamton, said.
The trough merged with a cold front stalled over the Great Lakes that combined with what was once Hurricane Sandy - the Frankenstorm's monster effect. But it also directed the storm west before it turned north, causing Sandy's S-shaped path to curve around area counties.
"The colder air over New York and southeast Canada pushed it south, which did save Northeast Pennsylvania from the worst of it," Mr. Champney said.
Sandy is traveling fairly close to the path expected by forecasters, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Tom Kines said, and the enormous size of the storm spread impacts from Tennessee to Maine.
The cold front and trough drew what would have been a more routine hurricane inland.
"Without those other two features, I think Sandy would have gone out to sea," Mr. Kines said.
He also pointed out that the storm's damaging winds stayed at higher elevations in Northeast Pennsylvania, which spared low-lying areas from the fiercest gusts.
"Those winds just didn't make it down to the surface like they did in other parts of the mid-Atlantic and southern New England," he said.
Although Sandy's worst is past the region, the storm will continue to influence the area's weather throughout the week.
"There will be rain," Mr. Champney said, and then the cold air helping to dump snow in West Virginia will head this way on Friday and Saturday, potentially bringing some snow showers with it.
"Probably not enough down there to stick," he said.
Contact the writer: llegere@timesshamrock.com