‘Hurricane Barack’ Losing Strength

Once a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Barack is beginning to weaken, according to election forecasters.  Below is a time line of the storm’s track:

• July 27, 2004 — The storm first appeared on the political radar, having surfaced from the weather underground as a no-name tropical depression during the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston.

• July 28 - Nov. 2, 2004 — During a three-month period, the storm system blew westward from the Northeast down to Illinois.  Along the way, it wiped out the career of Republican Jack Ryan off the political map before taking a turn to the East and settling over the nation’s capitol.

• Nov. 3, 2004 to Oct. 21, 2006 — Hurricane Barack all but disappeared from the political radar after doing next to nothing during the next two years it spent in the nation’s capitol.  On May 28, 2006, the storm gave indications that it would, for the most part, go away and thereby pose a much smaller threat to the nation.

• Oct. 22, 2006 to May 1, 2007 — Forecasters identified a dangerous shift in the storm’s makeup and kept watch on the storm for more than six months before leading them to conclude that Hurricane Barack had regrouped into a potentially cataclysmic entity.

• May 2, 2007 to Aug. 22, 2008 — Hurricane Barack earned designation as a Category 1 storm when it hit Springfield, Ill., on May 2 2007.  During the next 11 months, the storm criss-crossed the country and grew in strength.

• Aug. 23, 2008 — Hurricane Barack confused storm trackers by following an unexpected path that took it to Delaware and back before finally settling over the Rocky Mountains city of Denver.

• Aug. 25 - 28, 2008 — For a full week, Hurricane Barack became the focus of the world’s mainstream news media and gained fame as both the only storm of its kind and, according to some, the most dangerous storm on the political radar.

• Aug. 29 - Sept. 4, 2008 –  Meteorologists identified an unusual weather system that had taken shape rather quickly in the Pacific Northwest.  The first-ever Category 9 storm, Hurricane Sarah seemed to drain the energy from Hurricane Barack as it swept down from Alaska, over the Rocky Mountains and into St. Paul, Minn.  There, it seemed to gain even more energy over a four-day period.

• Sept. 5 to Present (and Beyond) — All indications point to Hurricane Barack weakening and, quite possible, dissipating completely by Nov. 4.  Conversely, Hurricane Sarah is expected to continue her meteoric rise and gain strength.  She could, in fact, remain intact for as many as 12 to 16 years.

Stay tuned for updates.

-- Bob McCarty Writes