Between Storms?

A preliminary description of impacts of Gustav on the Ark-La-Miss region is now available. Many homes in Louisiana and Mississippi remain without power. Now all eyes are on Hurricane Ike, with its 135 mph winds and a forecast that takes it over the Turks & Caicos Islands, the southern Bahamas, Cuba, and then into the Gulf of Mexico.



In central Mississippi, Saturday turned out remarkably cool and fall-like. In spite of official forecasts for a high in the low 90s that were revised to 86, the mercury actually struggled to even reach 80 under a light north breeze.

More on the Way and Some Change in the Air

As people return to south Louisiana and Mississippi, they're finding a mess and a long wait for power restoration, and have been largely forgotten by the media. Meanwhile the tropics continue to cook up more storms. Tropical Storm Hannah may have struggled and appear relatively wimpy, but it's unwelcome excursion southward brought another onslaught of misery to northern Haiti. While it was stuck in an area of with no significant upper-level steering currents, it made an unusual cyclonic loop.


Further out, we have Ike and Josephine. In all probability, Josephine will be a "fish" storm that just spins around in the open ocean, and is not expected to intensify significantly anyway. Ike is another matter. After a dramatic period of intensification yesterday, it is expected to enter the less favorable environment that Hannah has struggled in. It will probably approach the Florida as a significant hurricane, but hopefully no longer as a Category 4 storm.

Meanwhile, central Mississippi had a bit of a change today. Not only did the sun finally come out for a while, but the first weak cold front of the fall pushed through. It's always nice to have dewpoints drop from the mid-70s to the mid-60s. Of course, the reality is that it won't last very long.

Hurricane Party or Gas War?

On the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, Mississippi and Louisiana are trying to figure out an eerily familiar scenario. Although Fay pretty well fizzled before it could have much of an impact on central Mississippi, Gustav seems poised to provide a more credible threat to the region, especially for Louisiana. Even though Gustav is currently only forecast to become a Category 2 hurricane, many people are not wanting to take chances. Though the forecast landfall is still five days away and Jackson is three hours from the coast, it's amazing to see the social transformation of hurricane preparedness. People are saying that many stores are already out of bottled water and other common preparedness items. Long, long lines at gas pumps this morning have diminished now that prices have shot up by 20 or 30 cents per gallon and several gas stations have run out of supply.

From a scientific standpoint, it looks like we'll end up with three storms (Fay, Gustav, and Hannah) in a row exhibiting unusual (for the region) tracks with southerly wobbles.
And, at this rate, it looks like pretty much every stretch of coastline from Puerto Rico to Houston is liable to be impacted by a tropical cyclone this year!

A Statehouse Scramble

Even politicians have to duck for cover from tornadoes this spring up in Illinois.

Annual Congress of CMOS

Throughout this week the Canadian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (CMOS) is meeting for its annual scientific Congress at Kelowna, British Columbia. This year's theme is "Water, Weather, Climate: Science Informing Decisions".

DoWaC is back?

Crews fighting a wildfire in the Santa Cruz Mountains of central California are receiving help from more humid weather.

More storms caused damage in rural areas of Oklahoma.

Virginia tornadoes

Yesterday a series of at least three tornadoes tore through southeastern Virginia, with the largest impact being in Suffolk.

Interestingly, yesterday was also the six year anniversary of the catastrophic La Plata, MD tornado. Although tornadoes are not exactly rare in the mid-Atlantic states, an F4 tornado like La Plata had is extremely rare along the Atlantic coast or so far north. The tornado was one of an outbreak of 48 confirmed tornadoes over several states on April 27-28, 2002. The National Weather Service has produced a special assessment report, in addition to a web page created by the local forecast office. More photos are available on this page.