Hurricane Ike - Florida Keys - September 8-9, 2008

During the first week of September, 2008 Hurricane Ike tore through the islands of Turks & Caicos and Great Inagua as a category four, with sustained winds of 135mph, before making landfall on the north coast of Cuba as a strong category three, with 120mph winds.

Ike crossed the eastern and central provinces of the Cuban mainland and moved offshore, paralleling the south coast of the island, making another landfall over the western portion of Cuba and emerging into the Gulf of Mexico.

The hurricane continued across the Gulf and made a final landfall near Galveston, Texas as a borderline category two/three, with 110mph winds, during the early morning hours of September 13th.

The hurricane caused extensive wind and storm surge damage in the affected areas, virtually obliterating several coastal communities on the Bolivar peninsula of the upper Texas coast.

With monetary losses over $31 billion (USD), Ike is now ranked as the third costliest hurricane in United States history.

From the afternoon of September 7th through the evening of September 9th, storm chasers Michael Laca, Jim Leonard, Jose Garcia and Max Hagen intercepted numerous outer rainbands, from Hurricane Ike, in the middle and lower Florida Keys, as the storm passed well to the south.

At the time of Ike's closest point of approach to the Keys, the hurricane was a category one with sustained winds of 80mph and a central pressure of 965mb (28.50in).

Although the center of Ike remained a significant distance (150 miles) to the south, the hurricane had a very large windfield and produced sustained tropical storm conditions (39-73mph), with gusts of near hurricane-force, across most of the Florida Keys, which resulted in some minor wind damage.

These strong winds produced a 2-3ft storm surge in exposed locations on the Atlantic side of the lower Keys. During high-tide, many low-lying areas experienced significant flooding.

Numerous tornadic thunderstorms were also embedded within the outer rain bands of Hurricane Ike and several confirmed reports of tornadoes and tornadic waterspouts have been received from locations throughout the Keys.

Category:

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[juderson2]

Great video

what was the peak gust you recorded?

[vmax135]

Thanks so much!!! The highest gust I recorded myself was 56mph on the afternoon of the 9th, in Key West, near the entrance to the White Street Pier... where the large waves are crashing at the end of this clip. However, during the late night and early morning hours from the 8th to the 9th, several spiral bands moved onshore the middle Keys with winds that were easily gusting between 65-70mph. The highest officially recorded gust in the Keys was 75mph from an offshore automated marine station.

[SevereTstormFan]

great footage, wish I could have been there.

[vmax135]

Thanks so much! Glad you liked the footage.

[stormhunter27]

Love that wave footage at the end. Who were the idiots trying to get killed? Just some locals? (Of course, I tried the exact same thng in Galveston...) That surge was impressive. Did you get any wind readings yourself?

BTW - nice and clear video. I'm going to have to upgrade my camera soon.

[vmax135]

Thanks Mark! Yeah...the crazy behavior of walking out on the end of a pier, at high tide, with storm surge and waves crashing over them is standard fare for Key West locals during a hurricane passage. The highest winds we measured (using my Kestrel 4500) were between 40-55mph, but there were a few bands that easily produced gusts up between 65-70mph, especially on the night of the 8th and early morning of the 9th.

[Kristanni20X6]

IKE FIGHTS FOR HIS FRIENDS

[KKamy123]

i love waqching the wind blow the tree a lot i was in some what of a hurracane and the wind was so strong it knocked the power out was when i was in florida but the trees where we lived in florida were stll ok just a lot of broken limbs and branches

[VCube100]

some of this hurricane's remnants hit ohio and we got like 70-80 mph winds

[dksfriend]

people can fly away like that because a hurricane is a very strong wind.

[sourdoughress]

Cool video. Amazing footage.

[Mintasaur]

Awesome footage. I truly enjoyed watching this. Do you mind if I use this for a non-profit school project? I'll be sure to credit you and whoever else needed.

[lego12356]

in the begging of the video isnt flroida butiful?