Hurricane Irene – Day 8
Position: 37.3N 75.4W [10PM CDT 0300 UTC].
Movement: North-Northeast [020°] near 16 mph [26 kph].
Maximum sustained winds: 80 mph [130 kph].
Wind Gusts: 100 mph [160 kph].
Tropical Storm Wind Radius: 240 miles [390 km].
Hurricane Wind Radius: 125 miles [205 km].
Minimum central pressure: 954 mb ↑.
Currently about 70 miles [115 km] South-Southwest of Ocean City, Maryland and 255 miles [415 km] South-Southwest of New York City.
The eye made landfall near Cape Lookout, NC at 6:30AM CDT.
The central pressure for Irene is mid-range for a Category 3 hurricane. The wind speed reflects the size of the storm, the air mass that the storm is moving. This storm, with its consistent direction and slow speed is building a massive ‘wake’ or storm surge. That is what is going to do the damage. It was Katrina’s storm surge that wiped Waveland, Mississippi off the map, not the wind.
Update: The pressure has finally started to go up, which is better news. So far there are 9 deaths associated with the storm and over a million people without power.
A Hurricane Warning is in effect for the coast from Surf City, North Carolina north to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the coast from Chesapeake Bay from Drum Point northward and the tidal Potomac; north of Sagamore Beach, MA to Eastport, Maine; from the US border northeastward to Fort Lawrence; and the South Coast of Nova Scotia from Fort Lawrence to Porters Lake.
Here’s the link for NOAA’s latest satellite images.
[For the latest information click on the storm symbol, or go to the CATEGORIES drop-down box below the CALENDAR and select “Hurricanes” for all of the posts related to storms on this site.]
2 comments
As of 3AM EDT NYC still has power. Various webcams show it’s raining and the wind is starting to pick up a bit. The Midtown cam is starting to shake a bit, traffic appears deserted though I just saw an ambulance drive by. The Statue of Liberty cam is shaking too. The Times Square cams appear offline. The Liberty State Park cam showing the skyline has water droplets on its window but NYC is still lit up.
When the webcams start dropping out or stop updating, that’s when we’ll know the power had failed…
Update 3:45AM EDT: Situation remains same…
With NYC the water was always the problem with the power. The lines are underground and if water nails one of the major electrical vaults, the entire system will shutdown automatically to avoid total Northeast grid failure. ConEd will try to shut down sections if it sees a problem developing to save the rest of the their grid.
There was 6 feet of water in Battery Park this morning, so the flooding wasn’t a plot to annoy people.
The Statue of Liberty support system was supposedly designed for 120 mph winds as part of the last refurbishing, but a 120 mph wind on the ground becomes 150+ mph at Torch-level. No biggie as long as the Torch snaps off and doesn’t tip the whole thing over 😈
The water should be colder that far North, but the pressure didn’t start to rise until the 10pm advisory last night. Strange storm, but they all are these days.