Big rains sweep the area this weekend, and flood watches have been hoisted. The waves
of drenching rainfall could deposit 3- to 4-inch totals -- locally more -- which, if true,
would place the multiday rain event among the 11 heaviest in September over 138 years
of records here. This comes in the midst of a September already among the three
wettest on the books. Rain is to hit with two separate systems separated by a pause
Saturday night. The first features clusters of gusty t-storms in warm, humid air
Saturday. Wind-driven downpours follow as the remnants of Hurricane Ike roar by
Sunday.
Ike -- a huge storm more than 500 miles across -- lambasted the northwest Gulf
Coast on Friday. By late morning, 100 m.p.h.-plus wind gusts were being clocked on
offshore oil rigs. And the colossal storm's punishing onshore winds, gusting past 80
m.p.h. on Galveston Island outside Houston, had pushed a 9-foot dome of water across
parts of the coastline -- a storm surge which threatened to grow to 15 to 22 feet --
one of the highest on record in Texas.
SATURDAY'S WARM, MUGGY AIR BRINGS SEVERE THUNDERSTORM RISK
Thunderstorms may grow severe in parts of the area Saturday if any heating at all
materializes.
--Tom Skilling, Chief Meteorologist, WGN-TV/Chicago Tribune
