As I walked to work, at 6 AM, the leading cloud bank from Isaac's massive pinwheel was drifting northward above Columbia. Ahead of that cloud layer was the yellow-pink sky of dawn, giving the impression that the sun was about to rise on the northern horizon.
By 8 AM, the first rain showers arrived from the south and, for the past four hours, a steady rain has been falling across central Missouri. Devoid of high winds or severe thunderstorms, this prolonged deluge is more than welcome in our parched State; if the current forecast is correct, we should enjoy intermittent precipitation through tomorrow afternoon, recharging the creeks, reinvigorating the plants and bringing our wetlands back to life. Though too late to salvage most of this year's crop production, Isaac should put a modest dent in our prolonged drought and, hopefully, rescue the hayfields and grasslands.
As of early afternoon, the storm's center sits along the extreme western segment of the Arkansas-Missouri border and we remain on its eastern side, receiving a steady stream of moisture from the Gulf of Mexico; indeed, on the radar, streamers of rain are still coming ashore along the Gulf Coast and plumes of precipitation stretch from Louisiana and Mississippi to northern Missouri and western Illinois. Over the next 24 hours, Isaac is forecast to drift northeastward, taking its moisture to the Ohio Valley and, eventually, to the Northeastern U.S. Though he wreaked havoc along the Gulf Coast, we will be sorry to see him go.
