It has been the talk of the Midwest! I wrote about it yesterday and Justin blogged about it this morning.  This storm could possibly be the storm of the season.  Articles around the Midwest and talking about how this storm is comparable to the worst storm that we have seen in the past century.  Justin mentioned that we saw a storm in 1998 that the center passed just to our Northwest over Duluth, Minnesota.  He says that this storm was the strongest recorded.  I was doing some research to try and figure out exactly what the strongest storms in history are.  Here is what I figured out:

The Nov 10th 1998 storm lowest barometric pressure reading was 28.475″ which equals 964.3 mb.  This was recorded at Duluth.

The storm that sank the Edmund Fitzgerald had a pressure reading of 28.95″ at its lowest point which equals 980.4 mb.

The “Great Ohio Blizzard” of January 1978 the lowest pressure was recorded as 28.05″ which equals 949.9 mb.

So far those are all the reading that I can come up with of storms that have been the strongest in the last century that have had readings near what we should see for tomorrow.  This in article with the pressure from the last two storms.  This is the records from the 1998 storm.

Looking at this map of tomorrow morning you can see that we are near the 960 mb.  Now this is model data so depending on how low we get will depend on where we get marked down in the record books.

Now this is “comparable” to the pressure of a hurricane but a few things to note that are completely different.  A hurricane is fueled by warm moist ocean waters.  Midwest cyclones are fueled by the jet stream.  So although readings are similar what it means at the surface and for us are different. 

What do you need to know about tomorrow?  Most of us are under a High Wind Warning espcially to the south of 29.  This means wind gusts could range in the 55 to 60 mph zone.  An Advisory has been issued for the rest of us and winds will reach gusts to 40 to 45 mph.  These winds could knock down trees, power lines and throw outdoor furniture across roadways.  These winds are near what we would see in a severe storm and will not just last for a short period but for a much longer period, almost 36 hours!  The warnings/advisories will be in place from Tuesday morning through Wednesday evening. 

We will keep you posted with all the latest so make sure to stay tuned to our webchannel and Channel 9!

PS Our first snow is in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday!

Meteorologist Kristen Connolly

Posted under Fall, First Snowfall 2010, forecast, Records, Severe Weather, Storms, Tropics, Uncategorized, Weather NEws, Weather Safety, Winter Weather