Hurricane Ike  was the  ninth  named Tropical System in the Atlantic Basin for the 2008 Hurricane Season and the fifth to reach Hurricane Status.  Hurricane Ike  formed off the coast of Africa near the Cape Verde Islands while Chris Collura, Aaron DeBruin and I were still chasing Hurricane Gustav in a very active 2008 Hurricane Season.  This storm would be come the third most destructive (in terms of unadjusted monetary damage) to hit the United States  up until the 2008 hurricane season. 

The chaser story for this intercept is found on WeatherWarrior's Chase Story Page.

A FEW GRAPHIC RELATED IMAGES
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HURRICANE IKE INTERCEPT TRAVELS

ENLARGED MAP...DRIVEN PORTION OF CHASE

HURRICANE TRACK
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National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecast track at 4:00am (CDT).

This is the entire track of Hurricane Ike of it's Tropical Cyclone life.

RADAR AND SATELLITE IMAGES
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Visual Satellite at 5:34pm CDT, Sept. 12th.  Unfortunately, Visual Satellite imagery is dependant on sunlight.  That means this product wasn't available at landfall.	Black and White Infrared Satellite Image at 6:45pm CDT on Sept. 12th (see below for comparison over time).	Radar taken at 10:58 am (04:59utc) from the Houston NWS WSR-88D Doppler Radar
Images at Landfall (Eye passing over Galveston). The calm winds of the Hurricane's inner eye lasted approx. 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Distinct warm core signature on the Satellite Icing  Product at 1:00am CDT on Sept. 13th.  Compare how dark the hurricane looks opposed to the rest of the area around the United States.	Black and White Infrared Satellite Image at 12:45 am CDT on Sept. 13th	Color Infrared Satellite Image  of the same time (12:34 am CDT on Sept. 13th) as the image to the left.
This is the Radar taken at 12:59 am (06:59utc) from the Houston NWS WSR-88D Doppler Radar.  This image shows the Inner Eye of Hurricane Ike over Galveston, at which time Chris Collura, myself and the rest of Galveston were getting a break from all the high wind. Note that the southern eye wall is well defined and made for a very interesting and intense second half of the storm.  In many cases the second half of the storm often comes with more moisture if the storm is well organized while others (like Hurricane Isabel in 2003), the second half had much less precipitation than the first half due to dry air intrusion.

CHASE COSTS FOR  HURRICANE IKE INTERCEPT
Description	Cost	Shared	Running Total
8mm Tapes	$20		$20
Metro Shady Grove to National Airport	$4		$24
TGI Friday's (while waiting for flight	$25		$49
Flight to Austin (via Charlotte)	$300		$349
Gasoline #1	$20	50%	$369
Hotel	$40	50%	$409
Groceries from Wal-Mart
Gasoline #2		50%
Gasoline #3		50%
Denny's Food
Greyhound Bus from Austin to Dallas, TX	$59
Shuttle from Greyhound to DFW	$36
TGI Friday's (While waiting for flight) DFW
Flight Dallas-Ft. Worth to Baltimore (via Charlotte, NC)	$179
Food at Charlotte International Airport	$10
Car Rental		50%