A week before the hurricane, European climate models predicted a massive hurricane that would cause destruction across the entire east coast. The National Weather Service accurately predicted the hurricane would make landfall in southeastern New Jersey. The forecast of the most extreme wind rates reaching 70 miles per hour (113 kilometers per hour) has coordinated across the board reports of explosions reaching somewhere between 65 and 75 mph (105 and 121 km/h). The 3.9 meter waves at Battery Park in lower Manhattan broke the 1821 record for storm surge height. In the days leading up to the hurricane, the National Weather Service predicted record surges and flooding in the New York and New Jersey area, with peak levels of 11 to 13 feet (3 to 4 m) at the battery. A few days later, the National Weather Service accurately measured the 2 to 3 feet (only less than a meter) of snow accumulating in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia. [2] Storm Sandy was the deadliest and most devastating hurricane of the 2012 Atlantic hurricane season, and also the second costliest tropical storm in United States history. In the United States, Sandy massacred 117 individuals between October 28 and November 30, 2012. In total, 286 individuals are believed to have died due to the storm. [3] At its peak, just over Cuba, Hurricane Sandy registered as a Category 3 storm. In the United States, 24 states faced a range of storm impacts, including wind, showers, waves, waves on the seafront and snow squalls..