Born two weeks ago, off the coast of Africa, Hurricane Ike ravaged several islands of the Caribbean before spinning into the Gulf of Mexico and growing into a massive, category 2 storm. Leaving a broad swath of water and wind damage across coastal Texas and Louisiana, it moved inland and brought heavy rains to northeast Texas, eastern Oklahoma and Arkansas.
Over the past twenty four hours, an approaching cold front nudged Ike to the northeast and, as of this morning, its remnant depression was centered over southeast Missouri. Here in Columbia, we received torrents of rain before the winds shifted from the north, indicating that the "backside" of Ike's circulation had arrived. Making a beeline for Chicago, Ike will leave more flooding before its reign ends over the Great Lakes region.
Though the route of these storms may seem aimless, their motion is a reflection of upper air flow which, in turn, is governed by the jet stream pattern. Once Ike entered the Gulf of Mexico, it was deflected westward by high pressure over the Southeastern U.S., causing it to strike Texas . Once inland, the storm encountered an advancing trough; this dip in the jet stream pushed Ike off to the northeast, squeezed between the approaching cold front (to its northwest) and the retreating high pressure dome (to the southeast).
