Weather Pictures

The Gales of November Come Early.

20 Comments



From Chicagoweathercenter.com

also

Fenelon says the storm’s central pressure is equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane. He says this storm is a different type of event but that comparison shows the magnitude of the winds.


That wind map was seems to correspond to 7:30 am. By that time it seemed calm around here relative to portions of the night; I’ll be curious to read the peak speeds. Seems to me this is very early for the gales of November:


For those wondering how he current weather compares to historical storms, here is a list from The Chicago Tribune:

In Chicago, the barometric pressure could drop to 29.05, breaking the record of 29.11 for October, meteorologists said.

The weather service predicted that the storm will have the second-lowest pressure ever detected in the Great Lakes region. The Great Ohio Blizzard on Jan. 26, 1978, holds the No. 1 spot. This new storm’s pressure would be lower than that for the previous No. 2 Great Lakes event, the Armistice Day storm of Nov. 11, 1940. It would also surpass the storm on Nov. 10, 1975, that led to the sinking of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald on Lake Superior.

My dead tree version of the Trib’ included a list of storms over the great lakes and included the anniversary storm, Nov. 10, 1998 when the barometer hit 28.55 in. somewhere over the great lakes. About a week later, my husband gave a presentation about his trip to the Arctic to weathermen in Iowa. During breaks they were all discussing the similarity between that storm and the Nov. 10 Edmund Fitzgerald storm. It must not have been as strong over Chicago though.

20 thoughts on “The Gales of November Come Early.”

  1. Hi Lucia: It is 8:41 in Evanston. Little rain, a bit of strong wind but not unusual. How is it by you? Nowhere near the magnitude predicted (so far!)

  2. Jack–
    It was quite windy during the night– but not at the maximum levels they are predicting. The cat woke me up coming in from the cat door and begging for food. (His dish was empty at 4 am. Horrors!)

    It was fairly pretty windy around 6 am, but very calm around 8 am. Skillings forecast reads like the strongest winds come after the thunderstorm.

    I seem to recall the 1998 storm in Iowa worked that way– the highest sustained winds didn’t happen during the rain storm — but I can’t say for sure. I do know the skies were very clear while very high sustained winds blew as I crossed the street from teaching one lab to another. I also saw construction materials blowing off the top of the building. So, we may see higher winds as the clouds clear.

    Don’t…. go… sailing… 🙂

  4. jack

    Funny thing: my wife is urging me to go for a swim.

    Outdoors? In lake michigan?!

    I’m glad most our powe lines are underground around here. In Chicago, Com Ed has their service guys on call in anticipation of lines going down. Things will be back up quickly, but electricity is a nice thing. 🙂

  7. Skilling writes:http://blog.chicagoweathercenter.com/2010/10/high-winds-to-follow-storms.html

    High winds to follow storms
    By Meteorologist Tom Skilling

    The storm’s “dry wedge”–a notch or indentation you see on satellite images of large storms like this one which lends the storm a “comma-shaped” appearance and which sits beneath the strongest winds of the jet stream, will begin to enter the Chicago area this afternoon. This brings an end to the rains. It’s a region where air sinks and powerful winds sink toward the surface. It’s a very windy region of the storm.

    It will become extremely windy with gusts strong enough to produce some damage. Winds shift west to southwest this afternoon, continuing through the night. Afternoon temperatures will be 11 degrees above normal. Partly cloudy at night, very windy and noticeably cooler. Gusts continue to top 45-50 mph at times.

    So, the winds we’ve seen so far aren’t the predicted high winds. Those are yet to come.

  10. If you are ever in the area of Whitefish Point in the UP, stop in and see the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum, where the bell from the Edmund Fitzgerald resides, recovered 20 years after the sinking. There is also a short video about the Fitzgerald, and other memorabilia.

    http://www.shipwreckmuseum.com/

  11. While The Wreck of The Edmund Fitzgerald is an all-time classic, my fave Gord song is Carefree Highway

    ♫ Carefree highway, let me slip away on you
    Carefree highway, you seen better days
    The mornin’ after blues
    From my head down to my shoes
    Carefree highway, let me slip away…
    Slip away on you ♫

    Andrew

  12. Whitefish Point is one of my favoite stops in the UP. (Mmm, whitefish. Must be dinner time.) I love the huge Fresnel lens in the museum. It is hard not to get choked up over the Edmund Fitzgerald.

    I spent over an hour in the Tornado shelter at work today (Midwest Michigan), but its beautiful now. Blustery and sunny.

  15. Howard– I think I read the high winds are generated by cold air rushing in to replace warm air from the previous weather system. The warm air rose and the cold air from the jet stream is rushing in.

  16. Lucia,
    I was a young lad when the Fitzgerald was lost. That Gordon Lightfoot song is a deeply moving ballad, and very appropriate when talking about these powerful dangerous fall storms. I got to see Gordon Lightfoot perform this in person in the late 1970’s. His song still captures the bravery and tragedy of that awful night.

  17. Lucia: Agreed! That’s was my lame attempt at a goofball point sarcastically jumping on the latest bandwagon. Here in NorCal, we got a great load of precipitation from this same frontal system over the weekend… but almost no wind before, during or after. The M10 paper makes the claims that the winds of big weather features like hurricanes and H-cells are explained by delta p from the vacuum created by condensation.

    Since this is a hurricane-strength storm, one would think that it would be a perfect real-world example of the M10 wind generator.

  20. Neven–
    Yep. I think Chicago hit an all time low pressure on Tues. But that report shows records broken elsewhere yesterday. Around here, yesterday seemed mostly sunny with sustained not very gusty winds. So, at least from what I could tell the progress around here was:
    * Oct 25/26 evening storms worsening, morning storm. High winds, very gusty.
    * Oct 26. Gloomy and fairly calm around the time I posted. (My husband reports it was stormy not far south east.) Continued gloomy and fairly calm, cloud cover lessening.
    * Oct 27. Bright outside, sustained winds, but not so gusty. (This is not to say there were no gusts- but the storm seemed to evidence more changes in velocity, so more shaking.) Continues for a long time. Large things were blowing around the parking lot.
    * Oct 28. Back to gloomy and calm.

    I guess I’ve lived through 4 of these.

    Here’s the list:
    Yesterday’s October 26, 2010 Superstorm (955 mb/28.20″)
    2. Great Ohio Blizzard January 26, 1978 (958 mb/28.28″)
    3. Armistice Day Storm November 11, 1940 (967 mb/28.55″)
    4. November 10, 1998 storm (967 mb/ 28.55″)
    5. White Hurricane of November 7 – 9, 1913 (968 mb/28.60″)
    6. Edmund Fitzgerald Storm of November 10, 1975 (980 mb/28.95″)

    I was in Chicago for the Ohio Blizzard in Jan 1978. (It did hit Chicago. )
    I was in Iowa on the Nov. 10 “Anniversary storm”. (Some reports don’t give this a name.)
    I was in the ‘burbs of Chicago during the Nov. 10 Anniversary storm.

    Other than the Jan Blizzard, these storms hit within 2 weeks of Nov. 1. So, “Gales of November”.

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