The rain! The wind!  The Mid-Atlantic part of the country has been "battered" by Monday's Nor'easter.  As the south was battered by the same storm system produced tornadoes and severe weather earlier in the week. Watching the weather roundup for my region (South Jersey-Burlington County) the local weatherman, John Bolaris gave the round down on the weather event.  Wind gusts down at the shore in Ocean County, reached up to 78 miles per hour and major coastal flooding was reported. 78 miles per hour that's almost hurricane force winds! More inland, in Philadelphia, wind gusts reached speeds of 49 miles per hour and though flooding was slight, downed trees posed a problem, falling on houses, cars and power lines.  Wind speeds in Trenton reached 46 miles per house. Some areas are without power  ( Alantic City Electric is reporting 27,500 people are without power) and Fox News reported that a biker was in serious trouble when an uprooted tree almost fell on him. It's amazing we needed rain a few weeks ago but with this storm we got about 3 weeks of rain in just 2 days!
    I was amazed with John that the temperature was so low for it being May.  He stated that the high today of 48 hasn't been that low since 1882!  It was so cold that some places in Pennsylvania received snow. The normal temp should be 71 degrees for this time of month, and the record low was 11 degrees lower at 37 degrees back in 1962.  Though a storm like this mostly occurs in the winter time, a significant storm did take place back on April 2007, check Wikipedia April 2007 Nor'easter for that one. 
    So what  exactly is a Nor'easter?  As defined on Howstuffworks.com:

• Nor'easters can occur in the eastern United States any time between October and April, when moisture and cold air are plentiful. They are known for dumping heavy amounts of rain and snow, producing hurricane-force winds, and creating high surfs that cause severe beach erosion and coastal flooding. A Nor'easter is named for the winds that blow in from the northeast and drive the storm up the east coast along the Gulf Stream, a band of warm water that lies off the Atlantic coast.

    From the description this storm in May is unusual, though as we can see just because the time frame is from October to April, it doesn't mean it can't happen any other time.  Below is a satellite image of a Nor'easter: