Widespread Tree and Power Line Damage Getting Underway in North Carolina...

In my posts throughout the week you know that my greatest concern for North Carolina has been the threat of widespread tree and powerline damage due to the very saturated grounds "softening" the trees and power poles and the strong winds coming through and tearing them down.  Unfortunately, that's indeed what's happening in the initial reports that we're receiving across North Carolina this morning.


The first image below (click to enlarge) is a wide overview of some of the reports that have come in so far this morning.  The yellow and lighter blue icons are wind damage or specific high wind speed reports, some additional detail is provided on the left half of the image in the text information:

On this next image, I've taken the same information and superimposed some of the text from specific storm reports so you can get an idea as to what is taking place:

Keep in mind, due to the size of the image I was only able to highlight a handful of the reports.  This type of activity is underway across much of eastern North Carolina at this time.

Based on the above reports as well as surface weather observations from airports and other sites across the area, here is how wind gust measurements are coming in so far across North Carolina:

Keep in mind that the above map represents wind gusts.  Sustained winds are averaging about 75-80% of the gust level (for example, if a station reported a 95 mph gust, the sustained wind was 76 mph, on average).

I'm still working on the full Irene update post and will have that out shortly...

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