Hanna Rainfall...and Ike a Category 4

Rainfall was the big story with Hanna. Winds were not terrible at all here in the Raleigh area 15-25 sustained at times with gusts to 35 ..maybe 45 mph in spots, but the rain was impressive. If you were out driving around the Raleigh area after midnight you will know what I mean. Some of the heaviest rain I have ever driven in... Flooding was the big story with Hanna and not the winds. The good thing is we definitely need the rain since we are still having moderate to severe drought issues across the state. Tomorrow if I have time I will try to do an analysis of what happened with Hanna including why we got the heaviest rain here on the west side of the eye path and why the winds were relatively weak here but for now the image below is from the National Weather Service in Raleigh showing rainfall estimates across the area from Doppler Radar.



Here is an update on Ike... He is a dangerous category 4 hurricane for the second time in his lifetime. He is headed to the Bahamas and will affect them overnight. Cuba is next in his sights. The big question remains whether or not he will spend several hours over Cuba or will he stay over water longer. Of course if he is over Cuba for an extended period of time he will of course weaken considerably so we do not know how strong he will be when he emerges in the Gulf of Mexico. Yes we have another storm that is possibly going to be in the Gulf later this week. For now check out an impressive infrared satellite image taken at 12:01 am. Incredible eye feature that is very large. You can see there is an area that still has cold clouds in it but it would appear that its trying to clear that out. Ike may in fact be slightly stronger than the 135 mph the NHC has him at currently.