Good evening again everyone. While there has been a good deal of emphasis by this web site to keep you up to date on the latest goings on with Tropical Storm Hanna, there is another storm to be concerned about, and that is Hurricane Ike. Following on the heels of Hanna, Ike is the most formidable and dangerous of the storms that are out there in the Atlantic at the moment.

After developing into a Tropical Storm on Monday, Ike gradually strengthened on Tuesday before going through a rapid intensification phase much like Gustav did on Friday and Saturday last week. In a 30 hour period from late Tuesday night to about early Thursday morning, Ike dropped some 61 millibars, or 1.83 inches of Hg (Mercury) from 996 millibars to 935 millibars while its sustained winds dramatically increased from 65 miles per hour to 145 miles per hour. Although these winds have dropped to 135 miles per hour, Ike is still a Category Four Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale.

Located some 475 miles to the North-Northeast of the Leeward Islands or about 755 miles East-Northeast of Grand Turk Island in the Bahamas as of the 11 PM EDT on Advisory on Thursday night, Ike is presently on a Westerly track at about 14 miles per hour, and that track is expected to turn more to the West-Southwest for a bit before turning to the West again by early next week. Pressure still remains low at 945 millibars, or 27.91 inches of Hg (Mercury), but it has been steady over the past few hours after rising a bit during the day.

The storm is not as vast as Hanna currently is (tropical storm force winds extend 315 miles), or Gustav was, but Ike’s hurricane force winds extend some 35 miles from the center while its tropical storm force winds reach some 115 miles. Some more weakening is expected with Ike over the next one to two days as it continues to generally head westward. Interests in the Southeastern Bahamas, the Turks and Caicos Islands, Florida, the Southeast Coast, and even the Gulf Coast should closely watch the progress of this storm over the next few days. The model consensus points to a Miami or South Florida landfall by Tuesday night.

If that track were to play out, and Ike maintains an intensity of major hurricane level, it would be the first time a hurricane of Category Three strength or better made landfall in South Florida since Hurricane Andrew in August 1992. Andrew was reclassified as a Category Five Hurricane by the National Hurricane Center for its tenth anniversary in 2002. Some models have recently begun to follow the thinking that Ike could end up in the Gulf of Mexico, which would mean that New Orleans and Mississippi could be under the gun again.

Let’s also not forget that we’re not done with the tropics after Ike either. Right now, Tropical Storm Josephine is having some trouble getting its act together thanks to hostile upper level wind conditions in the Eastern Atlantic, but it’s hanging in there, and it could be another threat to deal with sometime late next week.