Patrick Damian

This year, Erin developed into a Category 5 Hurricane. But on August 19th, 2007, she took on a much stranger form. 18 years ago today, Tropical Storm Erin suddenly re-intensified in the middle of Oklahoma, forming an eye-like feature and attaining sustained tropical winds of 60 MPH more than ~450 miles away from any seawater. The unexpected and terrestrial intensification resulted in what NWS Norman said amounted to, “an inland tropical storm.” Initially, the Erin of 2007 was anything but remarkable. She formed in the Gulf on August 15th and made landfall near Lamar, Texas as a Depression after only peaking at minimal Tropical Cyclone status. But then, three days later, the ghostly remnants of Erin reawakened to the west of Oklahoma City. In an exceptionally rare case of the Brown Ocean Effect, the saturated soil and stifling humidity that day allowed Erin to actually re-intensify over Central Oklahoma, producing damaging gusts up to 80 mph and flooding rainfall. And even though the NHC did not reward Erin with official TC status for her unorthodox cyclonic survivalist skills, the “Oklahoma Hurricane” remains to this day one of the strangest things ever captured on radar.