Hurricane Ike will long be remembered as one of the most
devastating storm surge hurricanes to affect the Upper Texas and
Louisiana Coasts within the last 150 years of records.
Hurricane Ike developed from a vigorous tropical wave that
emerged off the west coast of Africa on August 29th, passing
over the Cape Verde Islands on the 30th. The wave gradually
became better organized during the next two days. Tropical
Depression #9 advisories were initiated by 10 AM CDT September
1st, with the depression being upgraded to Tropical Storm Ike by
4 PM CDT.
Ike strengthened only modestly through September 2nd. By 4 PM
CDT September 3rd, Ike was upgraded to and 80 mph hurricane, and
rapidly strengthened the next 12 hours to 145 mph by 4 AM CDT on
September 4th, some 900 miles northeast of the Leeward Islands
of the Eastern Caribbean.
After traversing west-northwest since leaving the west coast of
Africa, Ike began to move west near 24 degrees north and 60
degrees west. From September 5th and 6th, a rather strong mid to
upper level high pressure ridge off the United States East Coast
began to steer Ike on a rather unusual west-southwest track.
Ike made landfall across Great Inagua Island (southernmost
Island of the Bahamas) as a category 4 hurricane on the morning
of September 7th, plowing into the Northeast Coast of Cuba as a
category 3 hurricane later that evening. Ike crossed Cuba
overnight, and emerged into the Caribbean Sea the morning of
September 8th. For the next 24 hours, Ike hugged the southern
coast of Cuba as a minimal hurricane, eventually crossing the
western tip of Cuba midday on September 9th.
Click here
to see the entire track of Ike.
Once Ike emerged into the Gulf of Mexico, he began tracking more
northwestward in response to a weakness in the upper level
ridge. During this time, the central pressure gradually fell
from 968 mb upon entering the Gulf to 944 mb by the evening of
September 10th. What was unusual was the low sustained winds of
100 mph associated with this pressure, and the large envelop of
winds associated with Ike. Ike continued to grow in size
overnight. By 10 AM CDT on September 11th, Aircraft
Reconnaissance measured
Ike's tropical storm wind swath to be approximately 450 miles
wide, with a hurricane force wind swath of 180 miles! It was
at this time that the Hurricane Warning from Morgan City, LA to
Baffin Bay, TX was issued. Ike has began to turn more
west-northwestward by this time in response to a building mid to
upper level ridge over the southern United States.
Ike continued its large size as it tracked towards the Upper
Texas Coast the next 36 hours. For the last 18 hours before
landfall, Ike's structure began getting better organized with an
eye evident. Ike made landfall on Galveston Island at 2:10 AM
CDT September 13th as a strong category 2 (based on 110 mph
sustained winds) and a central pressure of 952 mb. Click the
radar &
satellite links here for images at the time of landfall.
Click here
for Ike's path across the Gulf of Mexico.
The combination of Ike's large wind swath, and the fact that
this wind swath piled water over the shallowest portion of the
Gulf, lead to much higher than normal storm surge flooding along
the Upper Texas and Louisiana Coasts, with the storm surge
reaching north of I-10 in Lake Charles, Louisiana. See the
Storm Surge
& River Levels section below.
Listed below are post-storm
reports and meteorological data gathered from Hurricane Ike.
All data is considered preliminary, and is subject to change at
any time. Additional
information will continue to be
added to this page in the future.
Post Tropical Cyclone Reports |
Lake Charles,
LA |
New Orleans,
LA |
Shreveport,
LA |
Houston/Galveston,
TX |
Corpus Christi,
TX |
Brownsville, TX |
Austin/San Antonio, TX |
Fort Worth,
TX |
Mobile, AL |
Miami, FL |
Tampa Bay, FL |
Key West, FL |
National Hurricane Center's Tropical Cyclone Report |
The following DVDs contains
higher quality satellite and radar animations of the imagery
above:
2008 Atlantic Tropical Storms & Hurricanes Affecting the
United States:
A Satellite & Radar Study
2008 Atlantic Hurricane Season GOES Satellite Imagery
Click here for more information.
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