Watching Ignacio....Why?

Remember the triumvirate of hurricanes in the central and west Pacific? Kilo, Jimena, and Ignacio? Well, they are planning to go their separate ways. Ah, man.

Ignacio must not like his comrades very much because his expected path takes him into the colder waters of the Gulf of Alaska. Believe it or not, Ignacio will maintain its intensity as far as wind speeds are concerned but not as a tropical storm. Huh?

Look at it as a sleight of hand regarding terminology. The National Hurricane Center defines a storm like Ignacio as extratropical once it loses the 'tropical' characteristics associated with its primary energy source from the release of latent heat of condensation, the warmer waters , and now converts to the typical process of temperature contrast between warm and cold air masses.

However, this 'typical' low pressure area will be anything but typical. As with many extratropical systems, they can still maintain tropical storm or hurricane force winds.

Remember Sandy? Superstorm Sandy? Not a hurricane Sandy?

Yes, Sandy who was a formidable Atlantic hurricane, made landfall on October 29, 2012 near Atlantic City, New Jersey, not as a hurricane but a powerful post tropical nor'easter. And we still remember the damage Sandy wreaked along that part of the eastern seaboard.

So do not let terminology fool you.

Now, back to Ignacio. If it survives into the Gulf of Alaska, the effects will be felt along the west coast of southern Alaska and Canada. Wind, waves, heavy rain. Where could it go from there?

It is nothing new that former tropical systems from the Pacific have been partly to blame for a cooler, wetter pattern for our region of Kentucky. It could happen that way again. I would say about the middle of the month, be looking for these changes. It very well could have Ignacio's name somewhere on it.

MS