Weather nerds such as myself are excited to see what this sytem will bring us. The threat of severe weather is indeed there, the only main limiting factor is the poor timing of the front here in Chicago. The morning hours are the least favored time for severe weather, but ironically the NAM is generating the best CAPE with this sytem as it moves through IL in the morning hours. The 4km wrf brings a broken line of storms through the area before congealing it all into a massive squall line as it races east of here.
The system is forecast to strengthen rapidly and deepen incredibly low, for those who are un-weather savvy, the deeper a low pressure gets the stronger it gets. Typically most low pressure systems don't deepen anywhere below 990mb and most stay around 1000mb - well, this one has the potential to go all the way down to 955mb! That is a category 2 hurricane!
I am monitoring the situation like a hawk stalking out a fish in a lake for I am undecided if I want to attempt to chase this or watch it from home. It will be a last minute decision without a doubt.
Even if we somehow miss the storms, we are under a high wind warning with non thunderstorm gusts expected to reach 60mph! That is just insane for this area, so even without storms, the potential for damage is there. Halloween decorations? BYE BYE!
LOT has an interesting comparison on their homepage: 2nd deepest low? Wow, truly we are about to be hit with a rare, historic storm. I will post updates as time allows! http://www.crh.noaa.gov/news/display_cmsstory.php?wfo=lot&storyid=58925&source=0
2 comments:
By the way, a 955mb storm is usually associated with a category 3 hurricane.
Even better!
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