Ike: How bad is it going to be in Dallas? (Houston: living in, fences)

[KittySkyfish]

I don't think anyone in Dallas overreacted to Ike. As 5stones and AK123 brought up, other regions of the US - areas completely remote from the Gulf Coast - experienced Ike and had fatalities, property damage, downed trees and power outages. We were very fortunate because other fronts pushed Ike further east.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/16/us/16midwest.html

All a great storm has to do to cause damage is to stall and create a beating with wind and rain. Also, storms from hurricanes can spawn dozens of tornadoes. Here are some Texas hurricanes that generated tornadoes:

Hurricane Beulah -1969: 115 tornadoes
Hurricane Allen - 1980: 29 tornadoes
Hurricane Alicia -1983: 23 tornadoes
Hurricane Celia - 1970: 8 tornadoes
Hurricane Carla - 1961: 8 tornadoes

[caligurltotx]

I think the argument here is by the time it reaches that far inland can it still be categorized as a "hurricane"? The midwest may have experienced some bad elements that were related like heavy rain and high winds but was it considered a hurricane? Isn't there certain criteria that qualifies something as a hurricane?

[5stones]

no it was no longer a "hurricane" when it reached the midwest. it was still a tropical depression. I believe it downgraded somewhere around Tyler Tx.

It was still had "hurricane" strength winds when it reached Ohio. Cincinnati is 1116 miles from Galveston.

Wind gusts of 50, 60 and 70 mph knocked down trees and power lines in and around Pittsburgh and western Pennsylvania.

And Ike was only a cat 2 when it made landfall.

Dallas is 290 miles from Galveston so yes it's very possible that a hurricane could reach Dallas as a cat 1. esp if that hurricane was a cat4 or 5.

Rita still had hurricane strength winds 150 miles inland.

so yes, it's possible if conditions were right a storm could still have hurricane force winds when it reaced the Dallas area.
Not likly and not often but yes it's a possiblity.

yes, they start to downgrade as soon as they come ashore and hit land and deal with the jet stream and high or low pressure sysytems already in place etc....

[stoneclaw]

Originally Posted by momof2dfw

The last "big" hurricane that hit Houston that did send weather our way was Rita.

WRONG! I was in Houston during Rita and Rita turned the other way around towards the southeast. Houston didn't even get touched. All we got was some wind which was really only strong enough to fly a kite in!

But an answer to the question, the last big hurricane was 25 years ago (Alicia).

[Lakewooder]

My family has been in Dallas and Northeast Texas for 125 years and none of them has ever been affected by a hurricane or tornado. So, I'm not going to spend any time worrying about this...

One of the first episodes of "Dallas" had a hurricane coming through South Fork. That was widely ridiculed at the time and I don't see any reason to take it seriously now, either.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by C2H (ComingtoHouston)

WRONG! I was in Houston during Rita and Rita turned the other way around towards the southeast. Houston didn't even get touched. All we got was some wind which was really only strong enough to fly a kite in!

But an answer to the question, the last big hurricane was 25 years ago (Alicia).

While Houston did not take a "direct hit" from Rita it DID have an impact on Houston. Remember the mass exodus of people trying to flee the city and many being stuck on the highways IN Houston when it came ashore. There was also damage done in and around Houston from Rita. Power was out in areas, lines and trees blown down, windows blown out, etc. I have family and friends that live there and most of them had some kind of damage from Rita.

BUT, since the OP was inquiring about the effects of hurricanes that hit the Texas coast on the DALLAS AREA....... Rita DID! I remember it all too well. My oldest had a soccer game that Saturday and the winds were BRUTAL! No rain but a LOT more wind from that one.

[stargazer]

I think the argument here is by the time it reaches that far inland can it still be categorized as a "hurricane"? The midwest may have experienced some bad elements that were related like heavy rain and high winds but was it considered a hurricane? Isn't there certain criteria that qualifies something as a hurricane?

If you have read my post prior, yes it can be a hurricane this far inland. When a hurricane hits land, it starts to slow down and loses speed. When a hurricane is not a hurricane anymore, is when the speed of it goes down to tropical depression speeds. If you look at my pictures on this thread, you see what Charley did to my property at a 1. I just looked up on a mapsco how many miles it took, it was exactly 163 to my property. It did travel 200 miles across land and exited Daytona Beach.

I though want to add, for it to reach a 5 on the coast and have it come to Dallas would be RARE! It would all depend on the speed it is going, the strength and if a front could hook it up this way. When we bought our property out near Orlando, we were told us to never worry about a hurricane, they were rare and probably would never happen. When I asked if they ever had one that crossed Florida, I was told they didn't know but they felt it could NEVER HAPPEN like that, it would have to come out of the Atlantic. Charley proved that person completely wrong.

For us, we got a little rain this weekend. I am very grateful it wasn't any more. I kept thinking about if the winds were to reach 50 mph, if it would be safe to be here in the house with the trees. Just this weekend I questioned why I would buy a house with trees...
It didn't happen though, plus my dh was reassuring me it would be fine and that our trees are strong if a wind did come up. We got more wind from Rita than from Ike.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by 5stones

Ya...tell that to Ohio...Ike got them with pretty high winds and damage...that's A LONG WAY for a hurricane to travel.
Lets see tropical storm Lenny (the one that came from BAJA CA) right before IKE dumped a huge ammount of rain in Lubbock! tell them a tropical storm never tracks that far!

As other s pointed out what saved DFW was the cold front sitting up in IL. it pushed the track of the storm east, otherwise it would have came right up I-45 with 60-70mph winds and a bunch more rain.

Ike was NEVER a hurricane when it finally got to Ohio, it was a tropical depression when it reached North East Texas & was a much weaker tropical depression once it reached Ohio.

The rain that fell in Lubbock wasn't even related to Ike.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by caligurltotx

I think the argument here is by the time it reaches that far inland can it still be categorized as a "hurricane"? The midwest may have experienced some bad elements that were related like heavy rain and high winds but was it considered a hurricane? Isn't there certain criteria that qualifies something as a hurricane?

The answers to your questions are no, no, & yes most definitely.

[Metro Matt]

Originally Posted by 5stones

And Ike was only a cat 2 when it made landfall.

A HIGH Cat 2 hurricane...1 mph faster & it would have been a Cat 3

There has been some debating done about this already for it to go down in the books correctly.