Hurricanes

A weather variable you'd expect to see powering a category 2 hurricane will be over Illinois this week.

Illinois is known for a lot of things. Hurricanes is fortunately not one of them. However, the Land of Lincoln could very well be impacted by a hurricane as soon as this weekend, but a lot of things need to happen first.

It's odd to hear the word "hurricane" and "Illinois" in the same sentence, but the effects of current Hurricane Francine are expected to impact at least parts of Illinois if not the whole state by the end of the week.

The following is a fact that seems unbelievable. There's a good chance that Missouri will be impacted by a hurricane by the end of the week, but it's going to be fine.

If you doubted the strength of thunderstorms making their way through northeast Missouri Tuesday evening, here's certifiable proof. Missouri weather stations have confirmed hurricane-force winds have already been recorded and the storms have just begun.

It's no secret that wind and hail were a big part of the waves of thunderstorms that roared through Missouri Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. One weather station in the state confirmed that winds exceeded hurricane force on at least one occasion.

We know that Thursday was a very stormy day for many parts of Missouri. Now, we know that within those storms were hurricane-force winds that caused damage especially in Lewis County, Missouri.

It rarely happens, but every now and then the winds in Wisconsin get fierce which is exactly happened on a 4th of July many many years ago. It was on that day that parts of Wisconsin were slammed by the equivalent of category 3 hurricane-force winds.

We know that life can be dangerous. I will admit that I didn't know that Wisconsin was in so much jeopardy though until I saw 12 somewhat terrifying risk assessment maps from FEMA about potential natural disasters.

I understand why so many people think they need to move to Florida, but I'm shocked that so many in Missouri actually did it. The numbers show more than 10,000 in just one year chose to depart Missouri and head to the Sunshine State which begs the question why.