WeatherInsights®: The Weather Channel Blog September 17, 2008 A
Category 2 brings untold misery Where to start? I guess with
that satellite image from when Ike was sprawled across the Gulf
of Mexico last Thursday evening. Oftentimes meteorologists will
caution that the extent of clouds is giving an erroneous
impression of how large in size a given tropical cyclone's
circulation is, as high clouds can extend well beyond that. In
this case, as expansive as Ike appears in this image, tropical
storm force winds extended to the north and northeast beyond the
orange-enhanced cloud canopy. It was that size that had me
stunned in my first and follow-up pre-landfall entries, and
still has me in awe. The maximum radius of tropical storm force
winds at landfall (extending 275 miles from the center) was
quite a bit larger than even that of Katrina (230), and even
though Ike was not as strong as Katrina, its maximum radius of
hurricane-force winds was almost as big (120 vs. 125 miles). For
perspective, hurricane force win