Kayla Shay - Fanart, Fanfiction & More

I really lucked out. Things are a mess around here. A mess.

Trees are up by the roots all over the place. There are still some roads closed within a mile of me. The giant sign for Walmart and Home Depot came down!

According to our local weather people, Ike actually re-strengthened when it came out of Arkansas and was a hybrid Tropical Storm. So, if I can have a tropical storm where I live, where's my ocean front property?

Excerpt from the local weather person:

A case study is underway...Sunday morning's wind event (Thanks to Ike) is unprecedented for our region and can only be described as incredible.

Ike underwent it's natural progression of weakening from Category 2 Hurricane, Category 1 Hurricane, Tropical Storm, to Tropical Depression....then something suddenly changed and it's progression was thrown in reverse.

4 different elements came together to make this "perfect storm" happen. First, the remnants of Hurricane Ike worked into Northern Arkansas and Southern Missouri around 3:00-4:00 am. Second, an upper level trough (stronger winds aloft) swung into Western Missouri. Third, a cold front pushes in from the Northwest. Fourth, heavy rain has fallen over West and Central Missouri the previous 24 hours. How do they all relate?

The remnants of Hurricane Ike literally joined up with the advancing cold front, pulled the upper level trough winds towards the mid and lower levels of the atmosphere, and used available latent heat from a warm, saturated ground in Missouri and rapidly strengthened.

The pressure gradient force (winds) increased and the entire system began to accelerate Northeastward. This is how we were to experience tropical storm force winds and a few isolated reports of hurricane force wind gusts. (Calvert City 74mph, Palma 75mph)

There is only one other case that comes close to this type of phenomenon. Tropical Storm Erin from the 2007 Hurricane Season. Erin made landfall just about the same place as Ike on the Texas coast but it traveled into Oklahoma after weakening. The remnants of Erin re-strengthened so much, that it actually developed an eye on radar. Similar wind damage was recorded in Oklahoma like what we experienced in our region. For a closer look at Erin, read more here from the National Hurricane Center.

There may still be more to the story but those are my thoughts on this weather event as I look back on it late Sunday night. We expected windy, but who could have ever thought Ike would strengthen back up to tropical storm strength?