Dean makes second landfall and soaks central Mexico

The Weather Channel, Accu-Weather, NBC Weather Plus, CNN, FOX News Channel and local stations provided viewers plenty of coverage on Hurricane Dean throughout the week and even more so on Wednesday.

Dean made its anticipated second landfall around 11:30 AM Central Daylight Time on Wednesday as a category 2 hurricane in Tecolutla, Mexico. The storm regained some strength after moving across the Yucatan Peninsula with peak winds around 100 miles per hour. The good news coming from this entire weather event was that there was less damage than many observers (including me) expected given the strength of the storm. Much of that can be contributed to where both landfalls occurred in remote areas where the population was small. If anything, the south shore of Jamaica can make claim to having the most damage with toppled trees and power lines and some buildings in Kingston now in need of repair. There was also some flooding and mudslides on Jamaica's east side.

This storm lasted 10 days, caused $3.8 billion of damage so far and to date and has resulted in 37 deaths (as of August 24th). In its final hours as a tropical cyclone, Dean simply drenched central Mexico with heavy rain over the Sierra Madre Oriental more than anything else. Mudslides have also been a major concern across the region. Rain from Dean didn't spare the largest metropolis in North America of 8.7 million residents. Some Mexico City neighborhoods had to deal with sewage canal overflow and as a result homes suffered flood damage.

And by the way, Carl Parker... you may want to clarify your source next time you state a statistic on The Weather Channel. You made reference to Greater Mexico City as the second-most populous metropolitan area on earth. Last time I checked, as of 2006, the New York City metropolitan area is ranked #2 with over 21.9 million and the Mexican capital region at #3 with 19.4 million. The Tokyo-Yokohama region is #1 in the world at nearly 35.2 million people. But regardless of my argument (true or not), this former hurricance affected many people in central Mexico.

The question remains, will the remnants of Dean affect the United States? There's no definitive answer to that, but if that is the case, the possibility some of Dean's moisture may move northward into the southern portion of the country. Texas certainly doesn't need it as that state is still recovering from Erin.