It was exciting and awful in the same breath. I was coming out of Alexandria, Ky. down I-471 when the rain started and by the time I made it to downtown, I had to pull over with the hopes that the rain would die down. I texted jjakucyk[/member] and we were supposed to meet in Oakley, so I headed up Reading only to find cars coming the wrong way over the I-71 overpass - the section under I-71 was completely underwater with cars submerged. I headed north on I-71 instead only to find the construction zone flooding and then came to a standstill by Montgomery/Dana. The NB and SB lanes were flooded at the underpasses north of Victory Parkway and I could see cars being swamped. For the next 1.2 hours, I had to sit, eventually getting out when the rain started to lighten to gawk at the scene like so many others stuck in traffic.

 

My ground clearance on my Subaru is around 8.7", and I had water up to 6" as the jersey barriers made the water creep up like a bathtub very quickly. Cars ahead of me were either being lapped by water or just under the limit!

 

I exited I-71 and headed towards some food only to find many Norwood streets completely under a few feet of water. Reading was barely open when I made it down there, but there were at least 15 cars scattered about that were ruined. I tried turning up to the Norwood Lateral only to find cars coming towards me in the wrong direction because the roadway was flooded by Montgomery Road.

 

I continued north on Reading only to find it impassible by Ronald Reagan, so I detoured around and was finally able to get onto I-75 to I-71 and headed out of the city. What a night!

Looks like passing over Haiti and Cuba didn't weaken Hurricane Mathew so the stage is set for massive property damage somewhere on the Florida on Thursday or Georgia and South Carolina on Friday. 

 

https://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/atlantic/2016/Hurricane-Matthew

Hurricane Andrew in 1992:

 

Us ordinary taxpayers in the Midwest get to pay to rebuild Florida's east coast starting next week:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2014/03/25/washington-is-encouraging-the-next-hurricane-sandy-by-creating-new-subsidies-for-flood-insurance/#506c8b7d5156

Especially all the development on the barrier reefs, which is like living on the vulnerable side of the bullet proof vest. I suppose we inland taxpayers will be building levees and pumping systems in a few years anyway, to keep all of that from going underwater.

Especially all the development on the barrier reefs, which is like living on the vulnerable side of the bullet proof vest. I suppose we inland taxpayers will be building levees and pumping systems in a few years anyway, to keep all of that from going underwater.

 

Or the barrier islands, rather.  I worked for several months on a commercial boat in the gulf intercoastal waterway and there more than anywhere else you see how critical the barrier islands are to protecting the mainland.  Except we stupidly subsidize construction on the barrier islands!!!  There is often little on the mainland behind overdeveloped barrier islands!

 

just to show how unpredictable and all over the place hurricanes are,

these are all the hurricanes to make landfall over florida over the past 100 years:

 

I want to believe that the green line is the same Hurricane just cruising back and forth aimlessly across Florida for a month or so .

 

I was amazed at how hard Cleveland was hit during Hurricane Sandy 4 years ago.  Huge trees were uprooted and property damage was enormous; much worse than in Philly which, of course, is much closer to the Atlantic -- nextdoor NJ was blasted, though. -- Fortunately in Greater Cleveland there was no direct loss of life IIRC.  Still, I had never seen Cleveland that strongly affected by a hurricane before.

I was amazed at how hard Cleveland was hit during Hurricane Sandy 4 years ago.  Huge trees were uprooted and property damage was enormous; much worse than in Philly which, of course, is much closer to the Atlantic -- nextdoor NJ was blasted, though. -- Fortunately in Greater Cleveland there was no direct loss of life IIRC.  Still, I had never seen Cleveland that strongly affected by a hurricane before.

 

It's hard to top what Ike did to southern Ohio in 2008.

When Sandy hit Cleveland with winds measured at 67mph at Burke airport, I was driving. On the Main Avenue bridge. In a Mini Cooper convertible.  :-( #thoughtIwasgoingtodie

I was amazed at how hard Cleveland was hit during Hurricane Sandy 4 years ago.  Huge trees were uprooted and property damage was enormous; much worse than in Philly which, of course, is much closer to the Atlantic -- nextdoor NJ was blasted, though. -- Fortunately in Greater Cleveland there was no direct loss of life IIRC.  Still, I had never seen Cleveland that strongly affected by a hurricane before.

 

The counter-clockwise winds around a low-pressure system brought them down across Lake Erie, unimpeded into the southern shore, with frequent gusts of wind of 75 mph lasting for hours that evening. Watching from my fifth-floor near the Gold Coast and looking east towards Cleveland, there were dozens of bluish-green flashes in the sky as electrical transformers shorted out if not exploded. The sound of the wind through the metal railing on my balcony was very loud and lasted well after midnight....

 

 

Authorities Urge Florida Residents To Prevent Further Disasters By Finally Standing Up To Hurricane

 

 

TALLAHASSEE, FL—Saying they had put up with the destruction inflicted by gale-force winds and storm surges for much too long, government officials urged Florida residents Thursday to put an end to disasters once and for all by standing up to Hurricane Matthew. “No more running; no more hiding—it’s time for Floridians to come together in solidarity and confront this Category 4 storm head-on by finally saying ‘Enough is enough,’” said Florida governor Rick Scott, stressing that the state’s residents would no longer let themselves be pushed around by violent tropical cyclones and noting that it was long past due for them to put on a brave face, stand firm against the 140-mph gusts, and show the massive rotating storm systems that they would not be intimidated. “If we ever want our state to be safe and secure, we cannot simply cower in fear inside evacuation centers every time we’re threatened by high winds and 20 inches of rain. Eventually, we must stand tall, look these tropical cyclones right in the eye, and tell them to stop right now.” Authorities added that if strongly worded language did not prove sufficient, citizens should be prepared to use physical force to fight the hurricane.

Authorities Urge Florida Residents To Prevent Further Disasters By Finally Standing Up To Hurricane

 

 

TALLAHASSEE, FL—Saying they had put up with the destruction inflicted by gale-force winds and storm surges for much too long, government officials urged Florida residents Thursday to put an end to disasters once and for all by standing up to Hurricane Matthew. “No more running; no more hiding—it’s time for Floridians to come together in solidarity and confront this Category 4 storm head-on by finally saying ‘Enough is enough,’” said Florida governor Rick Scott, stressing that the state’s residents would no longer let themselves be pushed around by violent tropical cyclones and noting that it was long past due for them to put on a brave face, stand firm against the 140-mph gusts, and show the massive rotating storm systems that they would not be intimidated. “If we ever want our state to be safe and secure, we cannot simply cower in fear inside evacuation centers every time we’re threatened by high winds and 20 inches of rain. Eventually, we must stand tall, look these tropical cyclones right in the eye, and tell them to stop right now.” Authorities added that if strongly worded language did not prove sufficient, citizens should be prepared to use physical force to fight the hurricane.

 

There's so much misinformation on the Web and this storm is such a threat to human lives that the Onion should have held off on this. This is a Cat 4 storm in an area that has never experienced one in recent history. Even if only one person actually believes this and stays, it wasn't worth the joke.

If someone is stupid enough to believe the Onion story is real, then they deserve whatever happens next. It's called natural selection.

Huricane Hugo was a 4 or 5 when it hit South Carolina in 1989.  It moved so fast that it traveled over Ohio just 12 hours~ after it made landfall.  I remember it well because the sky was orange (but there was no rain) and the air was tropical.  Somebody made the remark that the air had come all the way from Africa, which maybe some minute percentage of it did, but it was definitely crazy to experience that exotic tropical air here. 

 

When Frances and Ivan hit in 2004 their remnants both passed through Southeast Ohio and both dropped ridiculous amounts of rain.  I think Athens got 7" of rain in 24 hours...twice. Downtown Marietta flooded due to Frances...I have some pictures of that flood.  But neither time did the tropical air get up here. 

These are all hurricanes from space, pretty cool ...

 

Irene

 

 

Igor

 

 

Bonnie & Charlie

 

I don't think The Onion is the slightest bit funny, lately. I can't believe people find any of their crap humorous.

If someone is stupid enough to believe the Onion story is real, then they deserve whatever happens next. It's called natural selection.

 

There's stubborn people in Daytona who think "I've been through category 4 hurricanes before, I'm just going to ride it out" and they're probably just as stupid as someone who would believe the Onion article but the very sad reality is that despite police knocking on their door and warning them of how this hurricane will be far worse than anything they've ever seen, they still wouldn't vacate. What's even more horrible is that these people are parents with kids in the house and wouldn't let them at least take their kids to safety. I hope that if those parents do live through the hurricane, that they will be charged with child abuse and child endangerment.

 

Luckily, my mom moved back to Ohio from Daytona Beach a few days ago but I don't know how a few other people I know down there are doing :/

I don't think this guy is nuts at all! He's just telling it like it is. Get the hell out and save your kids! In fact, this may be the first time I've seen Fox News report something fair and balanced!

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lY4BBj1UQMI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wopNdLgrBk

 

Yeah, all of these idiots think because they sat through a "hurricane" in the past that they're no big deal.  It's because the eye and the 5-mile wide path of death and destruction veered 15 miles from where they were.  Foridians never admit that most of their state sucks. 

Yeah, all of these idiots think because they sat through a "hurricane" in the past that they're no big deal.  It's because the eye and the 5-mile wide path of death and destruction veered 15 miles from where they were.  Foridians never admit that most of their state sucks. 

 

It's not just Florida.

 

A fair amount of people in the Mid Atlantic didn't heed the warning about Post Tropical Storm Hermine on Labor Day and were rewarded with half decent weather and just some rough surf at the Deleware/Maryland beaches. More than a few people won't heed the NHC forecast next time. Simple truth is forecasting just has to get better. The more "false alarms" there are the bigger group of dumb@sses you'll get when there is a correct forecast of a landfall of Cat 4/5 storm.

 

Even forecasting storms that aren't hitting the coast have gone awry. Hurricane Nicole initially had a very low chance of becoming tropical, then it was forecast to be a weak Tropical Storm, now it's a Cat 2!

Basically no modeling even *comes close* to tracking one of these things over 3-4 days. 

 

What people don't get about hurricanes is that the winds, which are the focus of weather reporting, usually don't destroy much (Hugo and especially Andrew were the exception).  The rains don't usually cause much damage either.  It's the storm surge and flash flooding that causes the real damage, and that's a lot tougher to predict because local conditions are so varied.  Katrina and more recently Sandy were the most conspicuous examples of this, but the one nobody talks about is Ivan, which hit a less populated area (Mobile and Pensacola) in 2004 than either, but left all kinds of spectacular storm surge damage that still wasn't fixed when I worked down there in 2006.  Many bridges across the bays were shoved off their piers and boats were up in the woods all over the place, more than a year later.  There were simply so many of them that crews couldn't get to them before Katrina came around and caused similar damage 100 miles west.  I took a bunch of photos of all that that I'll post here sometime. 

 

 

Here is the storm surge map for Hilton Head Island, SC...one of my uncles owns a condo on the borderline between 1 and 2, so he might be in trouble.

http://www.hiltonheadislandsc.gov/publications/maps/HurricaneSurgeMap.pdf

The media got distracted by Trump and stopped covering the hurricane.  Hilton Head Island suffered an almost-direct hit at 5am Saturday morning.  Looks like most of the island was inundated and there was pretty severe wind damage like this:

 

The pictures of course can't tell how many homes and condos were flooded since the water has receded, but it has to number in the thousands.  All of it to be repaired with guaranteed federal insurance that you can't get on a midwestern flood plain.  The Army Corps of Engineers had homes torn down throughout the Ohio River valley while another arm of the federal government subsidized vacation homes on barrier islands from Texas, around the tip of Florida, and up through the Carolinas. 

Some charming salesman telling people that Hurricanes don't hit Hilton Head:

LOL! Maybe they shouldn't have premised their sales pitch by basically saying that if a hurricane is coming, you grab your irreplaceable belongings, you pack your bags and you leave... and insurance covers the rest.

 

I'm not an expert but this is the way I look at it. All of those islands along the Atlantic are "Barrier Islands." A lot of times they're actually called that, in the larger metros like Daytona Beach and Miami. Hell, some of them are man-made near Biscayne Bay and in a practical sense, they serve to prevent erosion and slow down hurricanes / prevent mainland damage, among other things. However, you could imagine the effect on real estate values in affluent communities like Hilton Head if they were known as a "barrier island."

 

All of those southern states along the east coast and gulf are likely to get hit by hurricanes and even where it's statistically less likely to happen, it usually means they're less prepared for when disaster does strike. Just look at Hurricane Sandy.

 

Ohio is a great place to live if you want to avoid natural disasters. I think we take that for granted, easily. Having family in Florida, I hated going down there and constantly being paranoid about hurricanes and even being up here, having to worry about whether or not they're making it through a hurricane. It's interesting that people want to live near the beach so badly, when they hardly ever even go to it once they're there and put themselves at such high risk of death by doing so.

^Outside of Katrina, very few Americans have died as the result of hurricanes.  I get your point, but I'd substitute "property damage" for "death" in your last sentence.  I'd say that Ohio's winters are more dangerous on a yearly basis than hurricanes are for the southeastern states.  Think about how many people die in this state each year due to snow and ice- mostly in the form of weather related car accidents.  We also do get tornadoes, but obviously nothing like the center of the country experiences.  Other than an isolated severe thunderstorms and winter weather than wreaks havoc on the roads, Ohio is pretty much devoid of the natural disasters that other areas are prone to.  No hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, and though possible, not a very high chance of a drought, either.

Cincinnati is the landslide capital of the country. :)

 

It's because of the amount of property damage, not injury or death.  Our slides tend to be small surface mudslides (like what hit Columbia Parkway after heavy rains) or hillside creep that damages roads, foundations, and walls, but is too slow to actually hurt someone.

^Outside of Katrina, very few Americans have died as the result of hurricanes.  I get your point, but I'd substitute "property damage" for "death" in your last sentence.  I'd say that Ohio's winters are more dangerous on a yearly basis than hurricanes are for the southeastern states.  Think about how many people die in this state each year due to snow and ice- mostly in the form of weather related car accidents.  We also do get tornadoes, but obviously nothing like the center of the country experiences.  Other than an isolated severe thunderstorms and winter weather than wreaks havoc on the roads, Ohio is pretty much devoid of the natural disasters that other areas are prone to.  No hurricanes, earthquakes, landslides, and though possible, not a very high chance of a drought, either.

 

That's an interesting point. I was simply thinking in terms of hurricanes vs. tornados (the only major natural disaster that we really have to worry about in Ohio.)

Looks like they're going to extraordinary lengths to prevent looting in Hilton Head...since it's an island they're not letting people back on.  But beyond that, they're not even allowing *news photographers* onto the island, so as to keep from tempting looters:

http://www.islandpacket.com/news/weather/hurricane/article107244162.html

The federal government prevents construction in flood plains on the basis that it isn't a matter of "if" it will flood, it's "when" it will flood. Hence, the 100 year flood plain concept. You can't put a new building in such a flood plain unless it meets requirements for being flood-proof (think Riverview East academy in Cincinnati) or you raise the ground level up out of the flood plain.

 

To some extent, coastal flooding is also a matter of "when." Pretty much every spot on the southeast coast of the US experiences hurricanes and coastal flooding at some point, it'd be interesting to do a similar analysis and see what the frequency is. If hurricanes cause disastrous coastal flooding in any given town more frequently than the Ohio River reaches it's 100 year flood mark in Cincinnati, for example, why the more restrictive laws for building along inland rivers?

I'd guess that a hurricane counts as a "flash" flood, whereas the Ohio River and its major tributaries don't really experience flash floods. 

 

Everyone knows that typical homeowner's insurance does not cover flood insurance.  But coastal properties require a separate WIND insurance -- in the case of South Carolina, the state has a wind insurance program that everyone buys into.  Then the flood insurance is FEMA, a federal program. 

 

When hurricane Ike hit Cincinnati in 2008 and caused the totally insane wind storm, homeowners DID get new roofs from their standard homeowner's insurance.  But if your house was flooded by the remnants of a hurricane (as occurred with Hurricane Frances and Hurricane Ivan in Ohio), your regular insurance does not cover the damage. 

 

 

There was Katrina-type flooding with people stuck on their roofs and in their attics in North Carolina this past weekend thanks to Mathew, but the media ignored the storm after it spared Florida:

http://www.cnn.com/2016/10/11/us/weather-matthew-drone-rescue/index.html

My parents live in the Pinehurst/Southern Pines area of North Carolina, which is a good 120 miles from the ocean.  They got about 7" of rain, but 30 miles east of them in Fayetteville and Fort Bragg they got twice as much and had major flooding.  This whole area is called the Sandhills, so it drains pretty well, but it's rolling kind of like the hilltop communities around Cincinnati, so like we saw in Norwood and Hyde Park a few weeks ago, heavy sustained downpours can still cause huge problems.  That area of NC had already gotten 5" of rain the week before Matthew, so everything was soaked going into it.  There was a lot of tree and power line damage because of the wet loose soil even though winds weren't that strong. 

It wasn't just Matthew that created the devastation in NC/SC. Those areas we're already very wet for the year before the storm. There was no run-off period so once it started raining it immediately starting pooling everywhere. That's why the NHC needs to continue to work for greater accuracy.

 

Amazing in DC just a few hundred miles to north of the major flood zones we only received about .5" inches of rain from the whole event. So precip is still a little below average for the year and month here.

 

The final untold story of Matthew is Nova Scotia. The forecast continued to be wrong, Matthew didn't loop back to the Bahamas but was embedded in a cold front causing the main crux of wind and moisture to race north into Canada instead of south causing flooding and damage with absolutely no warning for the people living there.

 

There were major forecast failures, worst I've seen in quite a while. Definitely needs to be examined by the NHC to see what was done wrong.

 

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/world/nova-scotia-premier-taken-aback-by-storm-damage-i-couldn-t-believe-my-eyes-1.2363141

 

Pretty amazing how much damage there was up there and no warning at all!

A rare late fall thunderstorm is roaring through Cincinnati right now. So far all I've seen is rain and nonstop lighting - no 3" hail, yet, and a total lack of any wind whatsoever:

 

An oldie but worth noting...

 

These U.S. Cities Are the Safest Refuges From Natural Disasters

http://www.citylab.com/weather/2013/08/these-cities-are-safest-refuges-natural-disasters/6561/

And here I thought winter had given Ohio a pass this year.

Yeah I cleaned up this thread. Don't need to inject Trump everywhere. If you really want to discuss it, go to his thread.

And here I thought winter had given Ohio a pass this year.

 

Meanwhile in Cincinnati, I think I've worn my "winter coat" maybe 5 times all winter.

 

This had given me the impression that December had been a lot warmer than last year, so I was surprised when I got my gas bill because it was a lot higher than the same timeframe a year ago. Sure enough, December 2016 had about 350 more heating degree days than December 2015 had. I think snow effects perception a lot more than a few degrees here and there. We haven't had any snow to speak of yet in Cincinnati aside from a couple of < 1" dustings. That gives the impression that it isn't cold, even though it has been colder than last year so far. Januardy 2017 was a bit warmer than January 2016, but not enough to offset December.

 

Here's an easy tool to get monthly degree day totals: https://www.wunderground.com/history/airport/KLUK/2016/12/31/MonthlyHistory.html?req_city=&req_state=&req_statename=&reqdb.zip=&reqdb.magic=&reqdb.wmo=

Last year we had the El Nino effect.  This year has definitely been mild, but not as mild as last year.

An April-like weather pattern will grip much of the eastern two-thirds of the United States this week! High temperature records were shattered Saturday in Ohio, in some cases by as many as 8 degrees:

 

CITY -  NEW RECORD - (OLD RECORD / YEAR)

• Cleveland - 69 - (62 / 1981)
  
• New Philadelphia - 69 - (62 / 1961)
  
• Zanesville - 69 - (62 / 2011)
  
• Akron/Canton - 68 - (60 / 1981)
  
• Mansfield - 67 - (60 / 1961)
  
• Toledo - 67 - (59 / 1961)
  
• Columbus - 66 - (63 / 2011)
  
• Dayton - 66 - (64 / 1948)
  
• Youngstown - 66 - (59 / 2011)
  

 

Sorry Cincinnati, you didn't set a new record. But it was still a mild 62 degrees. Thanks for letting me have a meteorologist geek-out moment. Enjoy the mild weather this week!

It better last into the next week after...and the next...

Lots of s*** along the Cuyahoga-Summit border last night, but very little along the eastern lakeshore.  Kind of the reverse of traditional patterns, that has happened a few times this winter.

Did you guys do anything fun that day that it was 73 degrees? Seems like it was a record high pretty much everywhere in Ohio. It was 73 in Cleveland and luckily my girlfriend and I both weren't working and had no obligations that Friday or Saturday - whatever it was. I met her at CSU and we walked all the way to Detroit-Shoreway, to a spot that has cheese curds and a bunch of other vegetarian food. I forgot the name of the place but it was great; it was just a little west of Gordon Square. Then we walked along the beach at Edgewater - took a couple pictures in front of the Cleveland sign and everyone was outside grilling out in the park and walking their dogs...it was awesome to have a day of summer in February. We walked all the way back to CSU from there so it was a total of 13 miles we walked. That was a memorable day!

 

 

 

For weather nerds!

 

https://www.ventusky.com/

That's a cool website. I'd love to be in Phoenix right now. It's above 80. One of my coworkers wen't to Vegas, strategically planning the trip during the dead of winter but it ended up being during the weekend that it was 73 degrees here and said it was only 50 degrees in Vegas when he went. It's hard to imagine it ever being that much warmer in Cleveland compared to Vegas.

It's almost freezing in Miami. 

 

 

I am so sick of this f'ing cold but when the sun comes out, everything looks very pretty. But these windchills at night (negative 20-30) are BRUTAL.

My pipes froze on New Year's Eve while I was away. They took over 2 days to thaw. It was totally lame.