Tropical Force Wind Gusts in Champaign on the Way

Ike continues to barrel our way and at this rate will arrive in Tippecaoe County between 1:30 and 2:00 p.m. Ike is located near Terre Haute at 12:25 p.m. Wind gusts of 43 mph have just been reported in Champaign. Rantoul just recorded a 32 mph wind gust. Rainfall rates of 1 to 2 inches an hour have been reported in Illinois. The good news is no severe weather warnings have been issued, but flooding rain is likely to overspread our area between 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. Our atmosphere will start to stabilize quickly once Ike moves to our east and this could happen as soon as 3:30 p.m. this afternoon. So I would like to take our chance of brief tornadoes out of the forecast by 4 p.m. Right now I put our chance at less than 10%. Still keep your guard up and send in pictures.

Ike note: No lightning on lightning tracker! This is a sign of a tropical system. This storm formed as a seedling off the coast of Africa and remember for lightning you need to have some ice crystals in the clouds. Since this is the opposite of a typical low pressure or mid-latitude cyclone which has a cold core....Ike has a warm core so there will not be much if any lightning associated with it as it moves through our area. If you noticed during the Ike coverage in Texas the only flashing you saw was from transformers blowing. So should the forecast really call for thunderstorms today? Just something to think about as we snack on radar, wind gusts, and chips this afternoon. I will check back if I start to see any rotating cells on Live Doppler 18. Thanks for hanging out with me this afternoon. The more the merrier. I better go do some more crawls for television.