NEW YORK (October 29, 2012)--Hurricane Sandy was about 310 miles southeast of New York City Monday morning, and the center of the storm is expected to be near the mid-Atlantic coast Monday night.

The National Hurricane Center said early Monday that the storm has top sustained winds of 85 miles per hour, with higher gusts.

It is moving toward the north-northwest at 20 miles per hour and hurricane-force winds extended as far as 175 miles from the storm's center.

Sandy was on track to collide with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.

Major metropolitan areas from Washington to Boston were bracing for what is expected to be a superstorm that could menace some 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation.