Besides being an active hurricane season, two of the current crop of storms–T.S. Ivan and Hurricane Jeanne– continue to behave erratically. The National Hurricane Center’s Colin McAdie, who keeps tabs on bizarre hurricane facts, says no hurricane has ever tracked like Ivan, into the Gulf Coast, up the Atlantic coast, out over the Atlantic, then south and east back into the Gulf. For nearly six days, between early Sept. 17 and late Sept. 22, no warnings were issued for Ivan, by far the longest period a trackable center remained below tropical depression strength.
Ivan moves inland
The storm should weaken over east Texas as it slowly loops counterclockwise around Houston in upcoming days, finally dissipating during the day Sunday. Rainfall in the neighborhood of 4 inches is forecast for eastern Texas.
Jeanne targets Florida’s east coast
After wreaking havoc in the northern Hispaniola, Jeanne looped the loop east of the Bahamas and, for the first time in many days, is accelerating westward. Florida landfall is scheduled for Sunday as a strong Cat. 2/minimal Cat. 3 hurricane with 8-10 inches of rain, followed by a trip up the southeastern seaboard.
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Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
