Arctic Air Plunges into the Great Lakes, Northeast and Mid-Atlantic

Arctic air dropping through the northern and eastern U.S. and a storm off the east coast will bring periods of snow, very cold wind chills and hazardous traveling conditions from the Upper Great Lakes to the Northeast. Meanwhile in southern California, Santa Ana winds will decrease but hot, dry air will remain over the area with elevated fire weather conditions.
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The Geminid Meteor Shower peaks tonight (Wednesday night) from 10 pm until 4 am. With clear skies and a non-bright moon phase, it will be a great night to view the shower. Make sure to dress appropriately as temperatures will be falling into the 30s overnight.

Another cold front will move into the region this evening and overnight. This front will result in a north wind shift, but gusty winds are not expected until Thursday. Low temperatures tonight and Thursday morning will be in the 30s for most locations.

Ike originated as a cluster of thunderstorms off the African coast near the Cape Verde Islands on August 28th, 2008. The thunderstorms soon organized into a tropical depression 775 miles west of Cape Verde on September 1st. Six hours later, the depression reached tropical storm status.On September 3rd, tropical storm Ike became hurricane Ike, 690 miles east of the Leeward Islands.Hurricane Ike hit peak intensity as a Category 4 hurricane with estimated 145 mph winds on September 4th. Ike's rapid strengthening tied it for fifth in fastest intensification rate for Atlantic tropical cyclones, with winds increasing from 85 mph to 120 mph in 6 hours.

On September 5th, Ike took a turn to the west and southwest steering it into the Gulf of Mexico instead of north along the Eastern U.S. coast. The night of September 7th, Ike hit Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane with 130 mph winds. After passing over Cuba, Ike entered the Gulf as a Category 1 hurricane on September 9th. The warm waters of the Gulf allowed Ike to regain Category 2 hurricane status on September 10th.

Ike made landfall on the Texas coast near Galveston on September 13th at 2:00 A.M. as a Category 2 hurricane.Galveston was slammed with a 10.8 foot storm surge and 109 mph winds. Bolivar Peninsula experienced the highest storm surge, with estimates over 17 feet!Areas like Sabine Pass North and Eagle Point had storm surges around 12 feet. From there, Ike trekked north into East Texas.Winds were sustained at hurricane force until it reached southeast Anderson County, TX, where it weakened to a tropical storm.Ike continued to weaken, but remained a tropical storm for the rest of its track through Texas.

Above: Best track positions for Ike, September 1 - 14, 2008. Box in upper left shows the intensity scale for the tropical cyclone track. Click on image for full size version. (From National Hurricane Center)

Take a look at how Ike impacted North Texas by scrolling over the pictures...

Some counties in North Texas experienced significant effects from Ike

Anderson County had estimated wind gusts over 70 mph bringing down power lines and numerous trees. These falling trees significantly damaged a few houses. In Freestone County, peak wind gusts were near 70 mph. Like in Anderson County, numerous trees and power lines were down and approximately 40 percent of Freestone County was affected by power outages. Leon County experienced 60 to 70 mph wind gusts and approximately 75 percent of the county was without power late in the day on September 13.