Hoosier Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 We have arrived at the 3 year anniversary of Hurricane Ike so I thought I would take some time to remember this powerful and wide ranging storm. This thread will focus mainly on the inland impacts with special emphasis on the damaging wind event that raked the Ohio Valley on September 14. Hurricane Ike made landfall as a strong category 2 hurricane on the north end of Galveston Island in the early morning hours of September 13. Ike was expected to weaken to tropical storm status by late in the day with further weakening into a tropical depression and then extratropical remnant low in the Ohio Valley on September 14. Such a scenario is not terribly uncommon for the region, with numerous examples of this phenomenon having occurred in the past. Remnant lows typically bring rain - sometimes heavy - and breezy conditions but end up being forgetful events for the most part. Ike would prove to be different. Hurricane Ike made landfall on the north end of Galveston Island shortly after midnight on September 13. Storm motion was north-northwest at and immediately after landfall with a turn toward the north over eastern Texas. Approximately 11 hours after making landfall, Ike weakened to a tropical storm east of Palestine, Texas. Strong/damaging winds were observed in eastern Texas and adjacent Louisiana during the daylight hours with a corridor of strong winds translating through Arkansas and eventually Missouri well after midnight. Although Ike was undergoing a weakening trend, it was still producing numerous gusts of 50-60 mph and occasionally higher well into the night. Ike began an extratropical transition as it merged with a cold front in northwest Arkansas with this process complete during the morning of September 14. Coordinates/pressures/maximum sustained winds were obtained from the NHC. Wind gusts of 70 mph or greater are shown in red. 850 mb winds (blue >50 kts, purple >70 kts, pink >80 kts), visible satellite and radar imagery at 12z September 14 Although Ike was originally downgraded to a tropical depression in the Arkansas/Missouri area, a post-storm analysis indicated that Ike remained a minimal tropical storm until becoming an extratropical low. After a bit of a lull in terms of winds, the remnant low began to produce stronger winds during the 12-15z timeframe on September 14. Widespread gusts of 60-75 mph were observed over southeast Missouri, southern Illinois and western Kentucky during this time in association with a very powerful low level jet. A boater on the Mississippi River reportedly measured a wind gust of 87 mph but the time and location could not be confirmed. 850 mb winds (blue >50 kts, purple >70 kts) at 15z September 14 By late morning/early afternoon, it was apparent that a very significant wind event was underway and NWS offices downstream began to upgrade the pre-existing Wind Advisories to High Wind Warnings. The warning from NWS Indianapolis mentioned isolated wind gusts of 80 mph were possible. Very strong winds began to impact southern Indiana, north central Kentucky and southwest Ohio with the Louisville International Airport reporting a wind gust of 75 mph. The airport control tower was temporarily evacuated when the anemometer at 220 feet recorded a gust over 85 kts (~100 mph) KSDF 141756Z 22033G65KT 5SM HZ CLR 30/17 A2955 RMK AO2 PK WND 22065/1751 PRESRR SLP999 T03000167 10306 20256 55008 To better assess the atmosphere, the NWS in Wilmington, Ohio obtained a special 18z sounding. What it showed was rather astounding: On the sounding above, we see very strong winds throughout the column and an inversion height just above 800 mb. We have all seen cool season events with 70-80 kt winds a mile above the ground but these winds typically have a difficult time making it to the surface due to a low level inversion (or at least rather modest low level lapse rates). In this case we have a deep layer of very steep/dry adiabatic lapse rates from the surface to the base of the inversion, tapping into winds in excess of 80 kts! 850 mb winds (blue >50 kts, purple >70 kts), visible satellite and radar imagery at 18z September 14 The zone of very strong winds continued across Ohio during the afternoon hours with sustained winds of 50-60 mph and numerous gusts of 70-80 mph. Columbus officially recorded a gust of 75 mph: SPECI KCMH 142106Z 21042G65KT 10SM SCT055 31/18 A2940 RMK AO2 PK WND 21065/2103 850 mb winds (blue >50 kts) at 21z September 14. Although 850 mb winds decreased somewhat throughout the day, they remained very strong and deeper mixing offset this: By 00z September 15, the remnant low had moved into Canada. Wind fields remained very strong as evidenced by the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania RAOB: 850 mb winds (blue >50 kts) and radar imagery at 00z September 15 Coordinates/pressures/maximum sustained winds were obtained from the NHC and HPC. Wind gusts of 70 mph or greater are shown in red. By the time it was over, Ike and its remnants were responsible for billions of dollars in wind damage and power outages lasting up to 2 weeks in the Ohio Valley alone. This event caused record or near-record power loss for multiple utility companies and is the second costliest natural disaster to strike the state of Ohio behind the 1974 Xenia tornado. Not to be forgotten, the remnants of Ike also caused a swath of heavy rain and exacerbated flooding issues around the southern Great Lakes - an area that had already received heavy rain from a slow-moving frontal boundary combined with moisture from what was Tropical Storm Lowell. A few links: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL092008_Ike_3May10.pdf http://ams.confex.com/ams/pdfpapers/153125.pdf http://mcc.sws.uiuc.edu/cliwatch/0809/080916.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundersnow12 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Awesome write up man!! Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 Awesome write up man!! Well done. I had more but it was getting too long. May post some follow-up in this thread in the next day or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thundersnow12 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 I couldn't find any gust over 84 mph in the OV besides that possible 87 mph gust in Kentucky. That being said, given 80-85 kt winds at the top of the mixed layer, I think it's possible that there were some isolated gusts of 85+ mph somewhere in IN, KY, or OH.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baroclinic_instability Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I will never forget this because I was forecasting it at Meridian! At the time we had a state DOT contract with Indiana and Ohio. What I will remember vividly is the wind gusts and the poor handling off all 12Z guidance that day regarding the wind potential. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted September 14, 2011 Author Share Posted September 14, 2011 I will never forget this because I was forecasting it at Meridian! At the time we had a state DOT contract with Indiana and Ohio. What I will remember vividly is the wind gusts and the poor handling off all 12Z guidance that day regarding the wind potential. The thing that really made this event was the unexpected amount of sun. Forecasts were calling for clouds and possible rain but breaks developed which led to widespread 85-90 degree temps. It would've still been windy but I doubt it would've gotten out of hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chicago WX Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Nice write up man. Thanks for posting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BowMeHunter Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 To bad it wasn't winter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrgjeff Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Excellent write up and analysis! I was in DFW at the time. Texans tended to focus on the Houston-Galveston area damage. Though East Texas was impacted, DFW missed a lot of the action on the west side of the storm. Wind and rain were mainly east of town. Good to reflect that Ike was a national event, defined as multiple states in multiple regions. I really like your discussion of the sounding and why winds mixed down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowstormcanuck Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 Great reanalysis Hoosier. Inland effects were pretty impressive, although it was a dud locally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryan Wood Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 The thing that really made this event was the unexpected amount of sun. Forecasts were calling for clouds and possible rain but breaks developed which led to widespread 85-90 degree temps. It would've still been windy but I doubt it would've gotten out of hand. That was what was stunning to me. In the Dayton area, it was all sun and high wind. I was at my parent's house outside of Springfield, OH, which is in the wide-open farmland. When the wind kicked up, my brother and I went outside and started punting a football downwind. I'm a former punter/kicker and I averaged about 45 yards, but my punts were going about 70 yards. The ball really took off once it got about 30 feet in the air. It was really fun until the shingles started ripping off the house and shed...flying at us at 60-70 MPH. We lost power for a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snowlover2 Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 I never want to go through anything like that again. I was without power for almost 2 weeks and hated every minute of it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheWeatherPimp Posted September 14, 2011 Share Posted September 14, 2011 One of the busiest 24 hours in our communication/dispatch center's history. I was working overtime that day and literally all hell broke loose by the mid afternoon. We ended up having triple the number of our normal staffing by 5:00 PM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
buckeye Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 top 5 weather event for me here. of note: - not a drop of rain fell - horribly underforecasted....majority of people never saw it coming including myself (a weather geek). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoosier Posted September 15, 2011 Author Share Posted September 15, 2011 In terms of wind similarities after extratropical transition, the closest matches I could find are the 1900 Galveston Hurricane and a September 1941 hurricane. The remnants of the 1900 hurricane produced 80 mph winds in Chicago and the 1941 storm produced wind gusts up to 75 mph around Detroit. There are a few other storms from the late 1800's/early 1900's that may have reintensified to some extent but it doesn't appear they were close to what Ike did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexo Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Hopefully you don't mind me making a quick side note here, but Ike was really the beginning of this long, disastrous drought here in Texas Rainfall departures since Ike in 2008 around SE TX: BUSH IAH: -27.39 Hobby Airport: -32.81 College Station: -27.61 Galveston: -38.87 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sojitodd Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 I evacuated here(surrounded by weak silver maples) and going into Columbus down 40 I had to maneuver around trees down across the highway in several places. Ended up at my parents house-ended up finding some of their siding in the road two blocks away. Without power and water for days-that part sucked! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aslkahuna Posted September 15, 2011 Share Posted September 15, 2011 Then there's the ultimate extratropical remnant-that of TY Freda in 1962 which brought 100+ mph winds to NoCA and OR. Steve Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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