Storm Summary

NATIONAL STORM SUMMARY

SEPTEMBER 2010

1^st-4^th…Hurricane Earl continued to reduce in strength on Friday as it tracked northeastward up the East Coast. The system moved about 175 miles northeast of Cape Hatteras North Carolina and currently located about 350 miles south-southwest of Nantucket, Massachusetts. The system reduced to a category 1 storm with maximum winds at 85 mph as it moved north-northeastward at 21 mph. The system brought heavy rains, strong winds, and dangerous surf to the East Coast from the Carolinas to Maine. Manteo, North Carolina reported 3.92 inches of rain with wind gusts up to 70 mph. Rainfall totals along the coasts of the Mid-Atlantic states ranged from 1-3 inches, while the coasts of New England saw increasingly windy conditions and cloudy skies.

8^th-11^th…Tropical Storm Hermine gave a wet and windy punch to Texas on Tuesday before weakening into a tropical depression, leaving only minor scrapes in the storm-weary Rio Grande Valley, which is proving resilient this hurricane season after taking a third tropical system on the chin.

Hermine lost steam after crossing into Texas with tropical storm strength. A peeled-back motel roof in the coastal farming town of Raymondville and scattered power outages were about the worst leftover from the gusty, drenching storm that came and went quickly after creeping up on Texas and Mexico in the warm Gulf waters over the long holiday weekend. Mexico didn't get off as easy. Hermine knocked out power for several hours in Matamoros and damaged about 20 homes, whose inhabitants were among 3,500 people who evacuated to shelters. About 1,000 families were still in shelters Tuesday morning. Authorities in Mexico said there were no reports of serious injuries or death, which was welcome news after 12 people in Mexico died in flooding caused by Hurricane Alex earlier this summer. Texas also had no reports of serious injuries, and evacuations orders weren't necessary even in the most low-lying regions. The U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Tuesday night that the storm had weakened to a tropical depression that was still bringing heavy rain to central Texas. It was another sigh of relief for the flood-prone Rio Grande Valley, which got lashed by Alex at the start of the summer and soaked by another tropical system in July. So damp is the area that only last week did Hidalgo County finally put away its last water-pumping machine. But much of the 5 inches to a foot of rain from Hermine fell harmlessly in the Gulf, and flooding was limited to only minor nuisances.

The storm made landfall early Tuesday in northeastern Mexico with winds of up to 65 mph (100 kph), arriving near the same spot as Alex. By Tuesday night, maximum winds speeds had decreased to about 35 mph (55 kph). The Coast Guard said it received multiple reports of vessels in distress late Monday and early Tuesday. Monday evening's incoming tide freed a fishing boat that had run aground in the Brownsville Ship Channel near Port Isabel, but Coast Guard crews and other officials had to rescue 17 crew members and a dog from three other fishing vessels that got stuck near the South Padre Island beach. All were treated for minor injuries, the Coast Guard said Tuesday. In Mexico, authorities had released water from some dams to make room for rain. It added more anxiety in the northeast cattle-ranching region where residents already live under the fear of a bloody turf war between drug cartels. Hermine struck around the same area where 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what is believed to be the country's worst drug gang massacre to date. By Tuesday afternoon, lights were gradually turning back on for about 50,000 people who lost power. Practically all of Raymondville had been in the dark after Hermine blew out signs, snapped utility poles and skinned the roof of the Best Rest Inn motel.

The remnants of Tropical Depression Hermine continued to bring flooding rains from central Texas to northern Oklahoma on Wednesday. The storm dumped an estimated 10 to 15 inches of rain over the past 24 hours and led to serious, life threatening flash flooding concerns across the central and northern portions of eastern Texas. In the storm total rainfall report through 10 a.m. CDT, Georgetown Texas reported 13.20 inches, while Austin, Texas reported 11.48 inches. Along with heavy downpours, strong to damaging wind gusts were reported through the afternoon.

A cold front kicked up scattered showers and thunderstorms through the Central part of the nation, while the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine moved through the South on Friday. A low pressure system skirting across the Canadian and U.S. border pushed a cold front through the Northern Plains and Upper Midwest, which extended into the Central Plains. This front kicked up scattered showers with heaviest rainfall in the North. These storms have not yet turned severe, but have triggered rainfall amounts between 2-3 inches. Metropolis, Illinois reported 3.15 inches of rain, while Warroad, Minnesota saw 1.36 inches of rain. Meanwhile, in the South, the remnants of Tropical Storm Hermine continued moving northeastward from the Lower Mississippi River Valley up the Tennessee River Valley. The system has lost most of its strength, but continued to kick up periods of isolated heavy rains. Poplar Bluff, Missouri reported 3.68 inches of rain, while 3.28 inches were reported in Paducah, Kentucky.

12^th-18^th…” All over the city, witnesses compared stories of the destruction they saw â€“ roofs peeled away, street signs uprooted, storefront windows blown out, thick tree trunks snapped in half, a parked van lifted a foot into the air. So it came as no surprise when meteorologists determined late Friday that the storm that barreled across a large swath of Brooklyn and Queens a day earlier spawned two tornadoes and a fierce macroburst with wind speeds up to 125 mph. What was surprising, meteorologists said, was that only one person died. "It's practically a miracle considering the population that was affected

by this," said Kyle Struckmann, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The tornadoes were the ninth and 10th to hit New York City since 1950, according to the weather service. One struck Brooklyn at 5:33 p.m. Thursday, with winds up to 80 mph, and carved its way northeast from the Park Slope section, Struckmann said. The second hit Queens at 5:42 p.m., with winds up to 100 mph, traveling 4 miles from the Flushing section to a mile north of Bayside. It was that second twister that snapped trees and scattered them like bowling pins, downing power lines and crushing vehicles, including a car in Queens where a woman was killed, according to the National Weather Service. Aline Levakis was in the parked car with her husband, Billy Levakis. The Pennsylvania couple had just switched seats in the car, said a former business partner, Peter Markos. Billy Levakis survived. The macroburst packed the biggest punch, said Brian Ciemnecki, another weather service meteorologist. Stretching 8 miles long and 5 miles wide, it started in the Middle Village section of Queens and ended in Forest Hills. A macroburst is an intense gust of wind that pours down from a storm. "The large majority of damage was associated with the macroburst," Ciemnecki said. Officials initially had reported that a microburst hit the city but later corrected that to say it was a macroburst, because it was more than 2 1/2-miles long. Strong winds caused damage on Staten Island, authorities said. The storm was part of a line that rippled across much of the Northeast before completing its run in New York City during the evening rush hour in a matter of minutes. It caught nearly everyone off guard, including commuters heading home and parents picking up children from after-school activities. "There are lots of stories of people who came very close to being hit by a big tree and killed, but fortunately there was only one," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Friday. "And that one was really tragic." Stunned residents sifted through the debris Friday, and utility crews worked to restore power in blacked-out neighborhoods. The number of customers without power peaked at 37,000, but that gradually improved Friday. About 14,000 customers, mostly in Queens, had no power late Friday. Consolidated Edison said it expects to restore power to most customers by Saturday night, and all service by Sunday night. On a badly hit Brooklyn block of 1890s brownstones in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the storm swept away parts of rooftops on at least six homes. One four-story rowhouse was so waterlogged that walls were marked Friday with large black Xs â€“ meaning they were to be torn down. In the yard behind, debris lay piled up, including parts of the roof, a crushed gazebo and a whole tree that landed there from two houses away. "Just look at this," said owner Babe Hatcher, standing in the backyard. Pointing at the top floor, he said: "No one can sleep up there; there's no ceiling. You can see the sky."

received more than 60 reports of buildings with possible structural damage. Officials had ordered residents out of some of the worst-hit

homes in Brooklyn. The line of storms began its work in the west. At least seven tornadoes were confirmed in Ohio, where storms flipped mobile homes, injured several people and damaged part of an Ohio State University campus. A small tornado also touched down in southern New Jersey, knocking over trees and damaging two houses. Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed over the center of the nation on Wednesday. A low pressure system slowly moved off the Central Rockies and pushed a warm front through the Central and Northern Plains, which stretched into the Upper Midwest. Meanwhile, a cold front from a low pressure system in eastern Canada hovered over the Northeast and New England. Strong flow from the South pulled in abundant moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, thus scattered showers and thunderstorms developed. Rainfall totals ranged between 1-2 inches along the front, with multiple reports of severe weather development. Quarter to golf ball size hail covered the ground in Atkinson, Nebraska, while 3.5 inch diameter hail was reported 1 mile north of Vermillion, South Dakota. Heaviest rains fell over Kaiser, Missouri with a mid-day total of 2.00 inches. The eastern end of this system produced hail from nickel to quarter size with damaging winds in Newport, Virginia.

19^th-25^th…Scattered showers persisted over the central U.S. on Friday. A low pressure system continued tracking eastward over the Great Lakes and Midwest. The system produced a strong frontal boundary. A warm front lead the system into the Northeast, while a cold front extended southward over the Mississippi River Valley. The cold front kicked up another 1-2 inches of rain, thus, flooding remained a concern over the Upper and Mid-Mississippi River Valley. The warm front in the East also brought periods of heavy rainfall with reports of 0.76 inches in Saranac Lake, New York.

The historic rainfall continued along the eastern seaboard Thursday as a low pressure system and its associated front moved slowly northward. Over 8 inches of rain fell just on Thursday for parts of North Carolina through Maryland, while rainfall estimates of 1 to 2 inches were common into parts of New England. This tremendous amount of rain prompted Flood Watches or Warnings from northern South Carolina through Maine as many rivers in the region were above 90% of their flood stages. To make matters worse, the storm was strong enough to instigate High Wind Warnings in New England as wind gusts were expected to increase to 40 to 50 mph later Thursday and into Friday. Tornado Watches were also posted late in the afternoon for parts of Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware to wrap up the active weather in the south.