Midwest Mauler Moves East! Good Clean-Up Weather Today!

We see storms come and go all the time here in Indiana, but last night will be one storm that we will never forget! I spoke with many folks that cannot remember a storm like it. The only think I could compare it to was a tropical storm I covered while in Gainesville, Florida back in 1995. That storm broke my umbrella with gusts near 60 mph. Heck, the storm we had last night was way more impressive than Erin. We did have the remnants of Ike move through our area in September but remember we missed out on the damaging winds that hit the Indianapolis area and those gusts took place in short period of time. The only weather we really do not experience here in Indiana are hurricanes and tropical storms since we are so far from the ocean but last night nature had a mind of its own and we all got a taste of what it would be like to live through one. We had tropical storm force gusts begin around 4 p.m. and this relentless wind did not settle down until midnight. It was like a 6 to 8 hour severe thunderstorm that would not go away. Severe thunderstorms are issued with 58 mph winds or greater and we certainly met that criteria for several hours. The High Wind Warning did not seem to even begin to cover what we went through. All I can say is wow! This beast of a storm even sounded like a tropical storm with a roaring wind that sounded more like a 747 taking off in our backyards. On our satellite and radar composite it even looked like a tropical storm as you can see the eye of the storm above! The big question everybody had was how could it be so violently windy for so long?

The eye you see on the picture above holds some clues. This low pressure really exploded over our area and intensified. Its pressure fell rapidly to 29.14" which is very impressive and is comparable to what you sometimes see with strong tropical storms or category one hurricanes. This is lower than the air pressure was over Lafayette with the Great Blizzard of 1978. We will go more in-depth on this comparison later on. The air flow in the atmosphere was severely disturbed and this big pressure drop created a suction effect that caused our damaging winds. Remember air flows from high pressure to low pressure and think of high pressure as a hill and low pressure as the bottom of a hill with air flow rolling down the hill from high pressure to low pressure. Last night our air flow was going down more of a mountain than a hill and like a skier on an expert course our wind had no trouble clocking hurricane force speeds. Take another look at those incredible gusts!

Today as high pressure moves in this freakish low pressure moves East things will quickly stabilize! We will enjoy some nice sunshine with a light west wind near 10 mph by this afternoon and more importantly I see no big storms our heavy precipitation producers in the near future. This will not keep the Wabash River from seeing a moderate flood crest close to 20 feet on Friday. Be very careful and secure your property in these areas. The Oakdale and Norway Dam areas of Carroll and White Counties are breathing a sigh of relief as they have dodged the flooding this time around. They deserve a break after last year's historic and unprecedented flood. You can see what made the big difference below.


The highest rainfall totals fell mainly south of these areas. You are looking at what happened in Frankfort as backyards became lakes and there were actually reports of boat rescues. Frankfort high school let out school early at 11:30 a.m. due to extensive flooding on state road 28. Make sure you check our web-site this morning as I am anticipating some delays from all of the wild wind and rain from last night. When was the last time that happened. This winter is one for the books! But again things will settle down today and still be careful of a lot of debris on area roadways. The clean-up will certainly take at least a couple weeks. I will have more of your great pictures coming up and talk about what would have happened if this storm would have been all snow. Could it have been our worst blizzard ever? Something to think about today! It of course would not have been a real storm without Dena Flanagan's play by play account or should I say picture by picture. What a gift she has. Let's just soak it all in and enjoy her montage of pictures. I will try to salvage a little rest before my body pump class this morning! See you soon and thanks again for all your help!

Hey Mike, Well you called this "hurricane" correctly! My Goodness at the winds, I think we have lost about 30-40 shingles, and that is what we have picked up in the yard, who knows what the roof actually looks like. I have taken some pictures throughout the day and Wow, I wish we had more daylight because I think the pictures will be amazing tomorrow when the sun comes up. We ended up losing power around 7 this evening and it was off for about two hours, but we are all good right now, I sure hope everyone has had a safe day, but I have already heard of some trucks being blown over.....bummer. we did have some incredible gusts of wind that even threw a shingle into our bathroom window upstairs and destroyed the screen....at the our damage is minimal and we can thank God that we still have a house standing, things could be much worse.

Here are some pictures for you, I don't have an accurate amount for the rain because my rain gauge blew down and broke....oops!

Take Care and be Safe!!!!!!

Dena Flanagan

New Castle & Wyandotte Road

This is actually a field and not a lake......located on New Castle Road (1 pm)

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Wait a minute......this is the sun showing its shiny face this afternoon about 3:45pm

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The sun is about to disappear with the second round of thunderstorms moving in..3:45pm

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There goes the sun..................

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I have to admit.....it was a pretty sight................................

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Now I am heading into town........this is old Co. Rd 350 South....check out the rain!

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This was starting to get UGLY!!!!!!!!!...........about 4pm

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This was at 350 South and US 52..........looking HORRIBLE now.......about 4:03pm

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my son Kyle snapped this picture as we were turning onto US 52.....UGLY!

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This was pulling out of Fairfield Manufacturing about 4:10pm....UNREAL at the wind

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Another picture waiting to pull out of Fairfield MFG....the Rain and Wind is UNREAL at this time...

Really scary!!!!!!!

It was too dark when I got home to take anymore pictures......I'll see if there is anything but shingles laying around tomorrow......but my neighbors have called me tonight and they have lost shingles, basketball goals....you name it....and it was blown down or away......But don't worry Mike.........I listened to you and I put everything in the garage....so we had NO missles!!!!!! ;-)

Take Care!

You are amazing Dena. I am glad everybody is safe and sound. Our thoughts and prayers are with those that lost their lives in Oklahoma from this same storm that will never be forgotten. The power of nature always trumps everything else and always teaches many us many lessons if you look closely. Every storm is different. Even though we were helpless to all the wind and water here at home we all came together as a team to help keep people safe.

There are good people no matter where you live but this teamwork and genuine concern for others is what I call the "Midwest Way". This attitude is unique to this part of the country and of course there are good, caring people no matter where you live, but there is a different level of helping your neighbor I have rarely seen elsewhere. I am convinced this Midwest Way is handed down from generation to generation and came about from the necessity to survive and endure the incredible weather that is experienced in this part of the country that you can find nowhere else in the world. This indelible spirit and the Midwest Way of doing things is something I will carry with me for the rest of my life which is not bad for an East Coast guy from Maryland.

I was very smart when I married a beautiful girl from Wisconsin and I count my blessings every day. She embodies all of this and more. This is a special place and it starts with the people that live here. Thank you! I guess Mark Twain was wrong after all, when he said everybody complains about the weather, yet they can do nothing about it. Here in Indiana people are doing something about the weather with the Midwest Way that does make a huge difference no matter what nature throws at us. Just take some time to read through this weather blog. There is a whole lot more than just weather going on here.