Hurricanes making landfall on the western Gulf Coast have eventually affected Michigan and the Great Lakes region.
Hurricanes making landfall on the western Gulf Coast have eventually affected Michigan and the Great Lakes region.
Hurricane Harvey is strengthening rapidly and will be a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico by this evening. Eventually Hurricane Harvey is expected to make landfall along the Texas Coast.
Here’s the latest animation of Hurricane Harvey, as of 11 a.m. eastern, August 24,2017.
Notice more circulation appearing. The circulation is a sign of an intensifying tropical system.
When we look back at all of the tropical storms and hurricanes that have made landfall where Harvey is expected to make landfall, we see a couple of those storms have still had almost tropical characteristics when approaching Michigan.
The next map shows all of the tropical systems that made landfall along the Central Texas Coast.
The tropical system database from the National Hurricane Center goes back more than 150 years. In that time, 39 tropical systems have crossed the coastline in the area Harvey is expected to make landfall.
You can see most of the tropical systems have lost all tropical characteristics before leaving Texas.
But two storm systems actually stayed strong enough to be linked to a former tropical storm or hurricane. One of those storms was still a tropical depression when arriving in the Great Lakes region.
Hurricane Candy in 1968 was still a tropical depression when it tracked right along the Michigan-Ohio border near Lambertville.
Hurricane Carla was a category 5 hurricane with maximum winds of 150 mph when it made landfall in Texas September 11,1961. By the time Carla made it to Michigan, it was categorized as an extra-tropical storm. This means it has mostly lost its tropical characteristics, but still strong enough to be identified with the parent hurricane.
If we widen out the starting zone of hurricanes along the Gulf Coast, more remnants of tropical systems have affected Michigan.
I bring this up because the European Model, which is usually the best one week out, brings the remnants of Harvey into the Ohio Valley and just southeast of Michigan next week.
Honestly, we could use the rain from a tropical system. When Michigan gets tropical system rains, it’s usually a widespread one to two inches. I’ve also found the rain coming from these systems is very nutrient-rich, probably because of its ocean origin. I’ve seen tropical rains green up the landscape within a day.
We will know by Monday if rain from Harvey is heading toward Michigan next week.
