I'm in Michigan and we're suffering through the remnants of a hurricane

[MrScorpio]

This is NOT normal weather

[Muttocracy]

1. I wonder if there was other strange weather along with it

It was 88 degrees today in upstate NY - I haven't looked up records, but that is NOT normal. Extra muggy too, until the wind started up this afternoon. We'll be getting the rain leftovers in a few hours. It's supposed to drop to 50 degrees by tomorrow night.

I always say I can deal with the snow and cold up here because we don't get much violent weather - but climate change may change that.

[blue sky at night]

2. Hey I saw what was going on up there yesterday....

and it was a huge blob of Green...right now we are getting a big blow on the south side of the front. I live north of Akron, and it looks like the rain is going to miss us.

[knitter4democracy]

3. We're flooded--again.

We flooded with that storm on July 2nd (when I broke my arm by slipping and falling in the garage). This was higher--even with the city out there pumping.

It's seeping into our basement but nothing bad. We sandbagged the basement windows, and the city promised more that never showed up. It was hip deep at the lowest part of our backyard that backs up to the city drainage pond, though the city pump is starting to catch up now that the rain's letting up.

Not normal weather at all. The flood in July was the first in our neighborhood in twenty years, and now we're in a worse one. If the ciy hadn't been pumping, we would've lost our basement for sure (after they paid for the new carpet that's been down for less than a month).

I'm used to short thunderstorms every week in a humid summer. We haven't had that for years now. Not normal weather at all.

[Two Americas]

8. yes, remember that?

I thought I might be imagining it. But wasn't that the normal pattern in Michigan when we were younger - a t-storm a week or so?

Sorry you got flooded.

[knitter4democracy]

16. The water's finally going down.

The city's still pumping, so the water's going down finally, but it sure isn't fun. This is definitely not how I remember summers as a kid.

[TahitiNut]

4. Well ... lawns are finally getting watered.

Miserable weather. :puke: But it's sure better than snow! :party:

[FirstLight]

5. Yea, weather is decidedly abnormal the past couple years or so

...maybe 5 yrs, getting worse...

I'm in CA - we haven't had a drop of rain in over three months... but the snows have been unreal, falls hard & fast...then dry all summer...there is a Mt. up here (Tallac) that is supposed to have the white cross on the top during late ummer or fall, haven't sen that happen in abpout 3 years. and that's after living here 16 yrs!!

I'm sorry to hear about your bad weather back east, and my heart goes out to those in the way of anything resembling THAT kind of force like they had in NO (katrina) and Galveston (ike)
I was also thinking how much our hurricaines have ben influenced by the huge icemelt & desalinization...

Times they are a changing/...get ready for a bumpy ride!:scared:

[Canuckistanian]

6. It's going to hit us tomorrow

Winds up to 57mph. We almost NEVER see winds that severe.

I've been making sure that our eavestroughs and downspouts are in working order and I emptied our rain barrels.

[glinda]

7. Rain rain rain in

Minnesota

[Canuckistanian]

19. I'm in eastern Ontario

Not too far from upstate NY. Minnesota is one of my favorite states.

I went to Duluth in the 80's sometime. All I remember is the Superior Shore area.

Beautiful.

:hi:

[LiberalHeart]

9. My sister has a tree in her Dayton (Ohio) kitchen today.

Storm's just now kicking up in NW Ohio. Heard cars were under water in Chicago today, but haven't seen that on the news. Heard it from a Chicago person.

[glinda]

20. We had a tree on our roof over our kitchen

A month ago we had an 80 mph straight line wind from a nearby tornado and a large tree fell on our roof.

[Breeze54]

10. By tonight, Ike will press into southern Canada, bringing a threat for heavy rain and gusty winds,

Ike Brings Flooding, High Wind Threats

http://www.accuweather.com/news-top-headline.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&date=2008-09-14_09:09

Ike has weakened to a tropical rainstorm, but as it accelerates to the northeast, it will bring further flooding to rain-weary portions of the Mississippi Valley and lower Great Lakes today. There will also be high winds near and just south of the center of Ike.

On Friday night, Ike pushed into southeastern Texas with a large storm surge, torrential rain and damaging winds. Since then, the center of Ike has moved northward through eastern Texas before turning more northeasterly, cutting through Arkansas and the mid-Mississippi Valley.



Ike will move quickly through the Ohio Valley into lower Michigan by this evening. The primary concern with Ike is flooding, as the storm is moving across areas that received very heavy rainfall on Saturday. Chicago, Ill., and South Bend, Ind., each received more than 6 inches of rain on Saturday, and Ike will produce widespread rainfall amounts of 2 to 5 inches today. The Department of Highways reported that 184 basements in Chicago were flooded on Saturday.

More.....

[knitter4democracy]

17. Ike moved up here fast, that's for sure.

We got slammed right on top of a slow-moving heavy rain front, and we ended up flooding. I haven't see the local news yet to see how bad it is in the area.

[Withywindle]

23. 184 basements in Chicago?

Ha. 184,000 I could believe.

Just had a work crew in Thursday and Friday fixing leaks in my apartment (1880s building, it happens). Seems like they did a good job, but I found some NEW ones on Saturday.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

11. My husband and I took a ride over to Capela's in Indiana

It's just off Indianapolis Boulevard on eastbound 80-94. The Indiana troopers had the Interstate closed from east of where we got off (Indianapolis Boulevard).

It was raining cats and dogs since all day yesterday and this morning here in the Chicago suburbs. It's finally stopped now though. The wind has shifted to the northeast and it's getting cooler and less humid. Thank God!!

The North branch of the Chicago River was flooding homes around Foster&Pulaski this morning. The city was making reverse 911 calls to the people who live in that neighborhood to get out.

They also opened the locks on the river downtown to let some of the water flow into Lake Michigan. The Deep Tunnels must be filled to the brim, because the city is very cautious about letting the river flow into the lake.

Every creek, stream and river we passed on the way to Indiana this morning looked really, really high.

But Sarah Palin, aka The Harpy from Alaska, says there's no such thing as global warming.

[Breeze54]

13. But there are such things as hurricanes!

:P

Stay dry! It's pretty damn humid up here in MA. too and has
been raining for 2 days... stopped this afternoon finally.

We have 94% humidity right now! Yuck!!

[TahitiNut]

24. "It was raining cats and dogs ..."

Did you step in a poodle?

:hide:

[madrchsod]

12. we missed a lot of the rain from ike today but....

friday night through last night anywhere from 3-7.5 inches in northern illinois.chicago set a record ( started in 1871) for the most rain in a day. the record has been set for the most rain in september in northern illinois
it does look like it`s finally clearing up out here in western northern illinois.

[VeggieTart]

14. Oh, man, I'm sorry to hear that

I'm wondering how a Category 2 did so much damage in Texas. Was it the geography of Galveston that made it vulnerable or what? I saw headlines where people said it was like a bomb went off.

[RoyGBiv]

22. Cat 2 ...

First, it was at the upper end of a Cat 2. Cat 3 starts at 111mph winds, and Ike had 110mph sustain with recorded gusts up to 125

Second, yes, geography was a factor naturally for the coastal areas and on into Houston. Bayous, rivers, the Gulf of Mexico ... all that water ...

Third, the Saffir-Simpson scale is, according to many meteorologists and climatologists, inadequate for assessing the strength of a storm. It is only a measure of wind speed and projected storm surge associated with that wind speed. As we all know, the most extensive damage from a hurricane is often due to water, i.e. flooding from, first, the storm surge and later from heavy rains. Ike was a massive storm, over 900 miles wide, and as it plowed through the Gulf it churned up an exceptionally large amount of water that it pushed toward the coasts of Texas, Louisiana, and even over to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and Florida. Parts of New Orleans were flooding indirectly from the surge while Ike was a day away from landfall. Jeff Master, of the Weather Underground website, wrote an excellent article on his blog a couple of days about the total kinetic energy of Ike and its potential for causing damage. The experimental scale he explained measures hurricane strength on a range of 1 - 6. At its height in the Gulf, Ike was at 5.4 on this scale. At landfall, it was a 5.0. By contrast, using the same scale, Katrina was a 5.1.

Using the Saffir-Simpson, IOW, doesn't give a clear picture of the potential devastation. Without turning to other methods, forecasters were saying that Ike was a Cat 2 storm with a Cat 4 variety of storm surge.

The only thing that saved Galveston from even more damage (and the damage to the island and especially the Bolivar Peninsula to the NE is massive as it is), damage on the order of burying the entire island in water that washed away everything, was a very slight ~10 - 15 mile wobble to the right in Ike's track as it made landfall.

[VeggieTart]

25. Got it, thanks

I know there are clearly tons of variables, but it seems Ike did more damage than Katrina--or am I wrong about that?--while Katrina had the heavier winds. It could, of course, be the storm's size and that it had plenty of time to kick up waves, blah, blah.

And I'm very familiar with the Saffir-Simpson, thanks, but the last news report I recall seeing still had top sustained winds at 105 mph (and yes I know about sustained winds and gusts).

BTW, when I was visiting my family in Florida over Labor Day weekend, we had overcast skies from the very edges of Gustav. There was also a rainstorm on Saturday, but I don't know if it was related at all.

[VeggieTart]

26. Yes, yes, I understand

I know there are clearly tons of variables, but it seems Ike did more damage than Katrina--or am I wrong about that?--while Katrina had the heavier winds. It could, of course, be the storm's size and that it had plenty of time to kick up waves, blah, blah.

And I'm very familiar with the Saffir-Simpson, thanks, but the last news report I recall seeing still had top sustained winds at 105 mph (and yes I know about sustained winds and gusts).

BTW, when I was visiting my family in Florida over Labor Day weekend, we had overcast skies from the very edges of Gustav. There was also a rainstorm on Saturday, but I don't know if it was related at all.

[CatholicEdHead]

15. And you blocked the system moving through here

So it has been cold and rainy all day here.

[Mari3333]

18. I m in Mi also and yes, we got slammed for 3 days straight

its like a monsoon. I drove with my oldest son and grandson to Indiana today to visit my sister, and it was a wash out on many roads. Good thing is, tho, I will be getting more tomatoes on my plants thanks to all this rain.

[hfojvt]

21. if it's the crap that just passed through Missouri/Kansas

they blamed that on a tropical storm which came from the Pacific Ocean. Something with a K. I guess we got 8 inches of rain in three days, but I have not heard of much damage, except in Wichita.

[Virginia Dare]

27. The sucker stayed together pretty well for many miles it seemed..

these storms just get scarier.

[Dukkha]

28. 650,000 of us in Ohio have no power

300,000 alone in Franklin county and will not be fully restored until Sunday :mad:
I'm only at work because I'm too sick to stay at home in the dark with no hot water.

[RamboLiberal]

29. Got a lot of trees down and power outs in Western PA

as well. Winds here were clocked at times 70+ mph. I was amazed at the number of big trees and branches that took a hit last night on my way to work today(Pittsburgh).

What was weird was we got very little rain - just high winds.

[kedrys]

30. It skimmed us in Montreal very early this morning.

The wind was amazing. Bent a reinforced metal tube real estate sign down to the ground.