Back to school; Dean landfall

Greetings from the School of Meteorology "Back to School" seminar! This week is my favorite, as everything gets back going, people are in a good mood and eager to make new friends, and the campus and city come back to life after a slumbering summer. I'm busy writing my dissertation and enjoying the back-to-school festivities. I hosted 6 Univ of Reading (in the U.K.) students for dinner last Friday night, and we had a great time chatting it up and laughing at some of the US-UK humor! Celia also hosted her annual back to school party on Saturday, and even though it rained the whole time (I think it rained a ton last year, too, as I remember getting soaked after dropping off the Univ. Hamburg exchg. students at Celia's door and going to find a parking spot.) I also enjoyed new-student move-in last Thursday, Wildwood map distribution in the dorms on Saturday, and the first 6:11 service on Sunday.

In weather news, Oklahoma had a very interesting event on Saturday and Sunday: the remnants of tropical storm Erin, that came ashore in south Texas earlier in the week, moved across Oklahoma and gave many areas 5-10" of rain. Norman had 6.1" of rain in 24 hrs, which has to be close to a record!! Hurricane Dean passed through the West Indies early in the week, damaging Dominica and Martinique before passing south of Jamaica on Saturday and coming ashore in the Yucatan as a Category 5 storm -- the first Cat 5 landfall in the Atlantic since Andrew 1992. Right now Dean is churning the Bay of Campeche on its way to the Mexican coast again. Hopefully all who were affected by Dean will emerge safely and begin reconstructing their lives and homes.

Radar image of Erin as it intensified, perhaps developing an "eye."

Rainfall totals from the Oklahoma mesonet as Erin remnants moved across Oklahoma.
Dean as it made landfall in the Yucatan with central pressure of 906 mb and maximum winds of 145 kt.