Ike is encountering an unfavorably big wall of dry to very dry air over the western Gulf of Mexico again today, and this appears to be even more pronounced than the last two days.. probably just the result of subsidence on the western half exaggerating the already dry conditions in the area. Before Ike has a decent shot to complete an eyewall replacement cycle and ramp up the winds before landfall, it is becoming increasingly necessary for the upper-level outflow to improve in the west... as oceanic heat content will be less and less of a potential energizing influence, and the long feeder leg stretching all the way into the northwestern Caribbean keeps hoarding things to itself, helping to maintain the rather asymmetric nature of the hurricane.

In a way, Ike sort of resembles a tropical mirror-image version of those very large and deep extratropical cutoff lows found in the upper mid-latitudes around winter. It probably can't be over-emphasized that the two largest threats associated with this particularly odd hurricane are: 1) storm surge and 2) phenomenally widespread very strong to damaging winds. Storm surge is already occurring along southern Louisiana, including up to six feet of surge near New Orleans. Both the winds and the storm surge will start arriving way ahead of the center of circulation in this gargantuan cyclone, and while there is still a question as to whether or not Ike will ever develop a core of real Cat 2/3 or maybe even Cat 4 winds, there's little doubt about the potential for severe impacts from hour after hour after hour of pounding from even strong tropical storm force winds and very high seas.