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In this blog, weather junkies on the Southeast Missourian staff talk about (what else?) the weather. Give us your observations, folk wisdom and Farmers Almanac tales -- it's a weather free for all.
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Hurricane Earl: A good argument for living in the Midwest

Posted Wednesday, September 1, 2010, at 5:55 PM

Sure, we have tornadoes, ice storms, flash floods, and earthquakes here in Southeast Missouri. But there's one good thing about living a long distance from the coast: no Category 4 hurricanes.

The East Coast is carefully watching Hurricane Earl, a beast of a storm packing sustained winds of 135 mph. Below is the obligatory satellite image.

At present, the storm is forecasted to come uncomfortably close to the coast, especially the North Carolina Outer Banks, before making a turn to the northeast. The strongest part of the hurricane, the right front or northeast quadrant, is expected to stay offshore. If there's a slight wobble to the west, however, that could easily change.

Even if Earl does stay offshore, it has two friends (Fiona and Gaston) following close behind. Fiona is probably not much of a threat, but newly formed Gaston could go anywhere.

Meanwhile, we're expected to enjoy very nice weather this holiday weekend into next week. It's about time that Southeast Missouri had weather to brag about.

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  • Is there an area in the United States relatively free of toronadoes, hurricances, earthquakes, severe ice/snow storms and volcano eruptions? I'm looking for it.

    -- Posted by Yankee Station on Thu, Sep 2, 2010, at 7:32 AM

  • As someone who live in SE FL, this is the time of year when we keep a weather eye out.

    I chased 13 hurricanes as a newspaper photographer and misjudged where almost every one of them was going to make landfall.

    My ability to keep storms away from my location weakened with age, however, and our house was hit by three hurricanes in 2004-2005.

    The place was built in the 30s and had survived every storm since then, so we suffered minimal damage. Of course, there's a big difference between the Cat 1s we got and a major hurricane like Earl.

    Still, I'd almost rather have a storm that you know about days in advance than be sleeping in a brick building when the New Madrid Fault finally lets go. And, don't forget the floods, ice storms and tornadoes...

    You're not exactly immune to our hurricanes, either. Remember a couple of years ago? Ike skirted us in FL, then came up to your part of the world and did more damage in Cape than it did where I live.

    -- Posted by ksteinhoff on Thu, Sep 2, 2010, at 8:05 AM

  • Five years ago folks in New Orleans were wading water.

    http://www.palmbeachbiketours.com/hurricane-katrina-on-a-bicycle/

    Six years ago, we were wondering if Hurricane Francis would ever move on from West Palm Beach after being pounded for nearly 12 hours.

    I ran across an excellent video done by two journalists who used their bike to get into the area flooded by Katrina. They describe riding into their own neighborhoods and watching the waters climbing into their homes.

    Well worth watching.

    -- Posted by ksteinhoff on Sat, Sep 4, 2010, at 1:06 PM

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