Storm Hunter Rocks the Area with Rain, Wind, & Real Autumn Weather

You see the scene last night at McCutcheon where a lot more was flying through the air than the soccer ball. At times it looked like a blizzard the rain was falling so hard in the lights. What a way to start off the area girls' sectionals. This storm was named Hunter in honor of the Full Hunters' Moon that was officially last night. Remember our first autumn storm was called Arabella meaning to bring rain and our second autumn storm needed a male name and Hunter certainly fit the bill. Since this is our weather blog we do not have to strictly stay in order when it comes to the alphabet so remember that when we name our next storm after a female.

I think Hunter is a perfect name because it will be easier to remember since it hit near the October full moon. Notice how beautiful the Hunter's moon looked on Tuesday night over WLFI, your one and only local TV station. You can see Hunter's clouds moving in and that full Hunters' moon looked a lot closer than 225,000 miles away from our parking lot that is for sure! Remember the corona we spotted around the moon on Monday night was our first sign of Hunter on the way. This was caused by the diffraction of light around the top and bottom of water droplets in the sky creating a wave pattern. Those odd blue and red colors are produced much the same way our CD's and DVD's produce when we tilt them a certain way in the light. Another good example would be a hologram. My only regret is not naming Hunter earlier as it turned into the real deal. Not to be outdone by the moon shot above, Hunter was putting on its own show at last night's soccer games and kicked up a quick 1.33 inches of rain on the southside of Lafayette. Here were a few more rainfall totals from our weather watchers around the area. I will add another chart when more totals come in by later today.

The big news was that we did have that isolated severe thunderstorm we started talking about here on the blog earlier in the week that we all knew nobody would call for but us! I have lived in Indiana almost 10 years and I am getting the hang of our weather mantra. As Hoosiers we all know that we get hit the hardest with the weather when nobody is expecting it. Well we met that criteria yesterday and I was not about to let our guard down. You see exactly where the wind damage report was located with the blue dot below which specifically was in Monterey located in extreme northeast Pulaski County.

Luckily everybody is safe and sound but there were a few trees that were uprooted along with downed powerlines. Wabash County reported trees on homes and cars with 60 mph wind gusts. The sky looked pitch black here in Tippecanoe County yesterday and luckily our line of storms did not bow out like they did farther north. Here is how it look on our up-close radar. Check out the bow shape I circled for you below.

You can see what happens when a line takes the shape of a bow echo. This usually brings wind damage in Indiana and yesterday was no exception. The good news is we did not get a brief tornado which was not out of the realm of possibility. Why do we get these storms that pop up so quickly and with little warning. Well one problem is that even the most sophisticated computers cannot keep up with our ever-changing weather in the Midwest and also we are missing valuable in-put data into the supercomputer located in Washington, D.C. Tell me why we do not send up weather balloons in Indiana which has some of the wildest weather in the entire country. This has to change and I made my point for you clearly at the weather conference I attended this past weekend in Cleveland. Today was exhibit Z. I can give you 25 other examples of this happening since I have been at WLFI. Now the good news is we do have Live Doppler 18 which is real-time and can handle whatever nature dishes out. Speed wins and our doppler radar is faster than anything out there, including the National Weather Service radars. Now I am excited you will have lightning tracker to also keep you safe when we launch our new web-site in the near future. It gives me peace of mind since keeping you and your family safe is the biggest part of my job.

There is a nice sample of what you will be seeing in the near future above. Notice yesterday the only significant lightning strikes in Indiana were right where we experienced severe weather. Now today it will be a shock to the system if you do not have a warm jacket. Hunter is also helping to usher in our coolest weather of the season. Notice the free fall in temperatures last night.

No, this is not a Tom Petty song this is the real thing. We fell 25 degrees in 8 hours and the amazing stat of the night is that so far this autumn which is now over 3 weeks old we have only really felt like it for 5 of those days. Well in the seven day forecast all seven days feature fall weather including a frost on the way. I will have more on this and let you know tonight if our fall foliage will be peaking after all of this unusually warm weather. Now is a good time to remember the COATS FOR KIDS campaign we are running here at WLFI. I know a lot of our kids have outgrown their coats or they need new ones. Remember to bring by some of those old hats, gloves, scarves, and coats you do not need this winter so you can help keep a kid not only warm but safe from our wild Indiana weather. December looks like it will be a real bear. You can drop off those coats here at WLFI or at all area Hudlows locations. Thanks so much in advance. I have seen what a huge difference it makes.

While you are out and about running those errands today remember the Lafayette Christian School Bake Sale! This is one way to stay warm. There is nothing like heating up those pies when temperatures are expected to fall into the 30s like they are tonight! You can see a few of the dozens of volunteers peeling, coring, and slicing apples. They made up to 7,000 pies in just two days. The goal is to raise 40,000 dollars to lower the tuition for the kids. The cinnamon sugar mixture, pie crust, and crumb mixture of butter, flower, and sugar are well worth the 9 dollars and just think it is for a good cause. The pies are double wrapped and boxed for the freezer so they are as fresh as grandma's famous pies. Drive-thru pickup is on Brown Street, adjacent to Lafayette Christian School which is located on 525 N. 26th Street, Lafayette and its open from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. both today and tomorrow while pies are still available. They go fast so hurry up, but please drive safely....LOL

Now to keep you warm tomorrow I will post my wife's special chicken wing dip recipe here on the blog. Here is our blog song of the day which is from the one and only Tom Petty in honor of our free-falling temperatures. Have a wonderful day and a special shout-out to my Wisconsin mother for helping our family out over the past week. Please come back soon! You were terrific!