I know all the focus is on Hurricane Dean, and Erin made landfall a few days ago, but Erin has made a major resurgence overnight in OKlahoma! Wind gusts as high as 82mph have been reported, and the eye has reappeared in the past 5 hours. I can't believe the HPC has kept Erin as a Tropical Depression on the latest 4am advisory (yes, the HPC is still issuing advisories since Erin is still a TD!), given that there have been numerous reports of SUSTAINED winds in the 40-50 mph range. The flooding has become very significant across parts of Oklahoma, with 3 hr rain totals >6", and some 12 hour totals approaching 10". There was even a recent report of a house that has been swept away by flood waters in southwestern OK. Additionally, several tornadoes occurred Saturday afternoon and evening across SW OK and N TX, and more tornadoes are likely today in ne OK and SE KS. The KTLX VWP had been indicating >50kts sustained winds about 2 km above the ground.
There is a little baroclinity with this storm (slight temperature gradient across the storm), and the precip has grown a little more asymmetric in the past few hours. Regarldess, this is a warm-core, tropical system In the very least, this is a subtropical storm.
Heck, Erin looks better than some hurricanes watched!
Meteogram from Watonga OK (west of OKC) -- Note the sustained >40 mph winds for 2 hours, and the gusts > 60mph. Also note the extreme pressure falls (for a land station) of ~8 mb /3 hr.
IR image Sunday morning -- Check out the "scalloped" appearance to the upper-level outflow common to intensifying cyclones
I have several other images up at http://www.tornadocentral.com/now/Erin/ ... This is probably the most fascinating mesoscale event I've ever seen in Oklahoma (and I'm a storm chaser and meteorologist, so I've seen quite a few fascinating events). I'm not sure of the reason for the strengthening of Erin in the past 12 hours, but I've never seen an eye like this in Oklahoma, that's for sure! Add in the >60 mph wind gusts and extreme rainfall rates, and it's made for an extremely interesting morning.
Current Image (note that there is significant attenuation occurring with the radar attm, even at S-band, so the actual intensities are stronger than indicated):
....rich..ps were any special obs/launches ordered last night?
