At 8am EDT, the center of Hurricane Irene was located about 55 miles Southeast of Acklins Island, Bahamas, and moving West/Northwest at 9 mph.
Maximum sustained winds were 115 mph, with a minimum central pressure of 28.26 inches of mercury (957 millibars).
The thinking surrounding the forecast track and intensity are largely unchanged from my last detailed post on the subject yesterday evening. I'll make a similar, updated post later today.
The latest official National Hurricane Center track forecast is below (also largely unchanged from yesterday evening):
If you enjoy reading 'The Original Weather Blog', please be sure to "like" our facebook page!
4 comments:
Rob,
I finally got in touch with my family in Carolina Beach/Wilmington and they're taking a "watch and wait" approach since forecasts keep moving it a bit more right. Cousin (who's lived there all his life) said his biggest concern is the Outer Banks and, of course, flooding. He did say he felt the quake yesterday, too. "We know how to throw a party out here!!", was his quote. HA!
Anthill_Goddess,
Thanks for the comment.
It's very important in situations like this not to fixate on the forecast of where the center of the storm will pass. As I pointed out yesterday, Irene is and will be a large storm (with respect to size), with hurricane force winds extending well out in all directions from the center. In fact, on yesterday evening's recon mission, the strongest surface wind (near 100 mph) was measured on the Western side of the storm.
I'll have another detailed post regarding the latest thinking on track and intensity later this afternoon...
I totally agree...however, living in the midwest almost all my life, my family on the coast think they "know better" than I would on how and when to prepare. Yes, they probably have much more experience with the chance of huricanes (don't think I'll probably ever have THAT experience in Iowa! HA!) but I'll continue to urge preparation to them. I just don't think they're going to listen to a land-locked cousin in the middle of the country. *Sighs*
Thanks for keeping us up-to-date!
Anthill,
I hear ya. It's always harder to get the "locals" to listen than someone who has just moved there. I hope they don't let their guard down!
Post a Comment