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IRENE RE-EMERGES FROM NC INTO THE ATLANTIC
8/27/2011 — 5:20 p.m. ET


This is a storm that poses an extraordinary threat and is increasingly affecting the eastern Mid-Atlantic and will then target eastern New York and New England over the next 24 to 36 hours.

Hurricane Irene made landfall near Cape Lookout, North Carolina, just before 8 a.m. EDT as an 85-mph, category 1 hurricane. Irene is still a category 1 hurricane with winds of 80 mph.

The center of Irene is located about 50 miles south-southeast of Norfolk, Virginia, and is moving to the north-northeast near 13 miles per hour.

The center of Irene is forecast to move to just east of the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay this evening and then ride up the coast with an eventual landfall anticipated on Sunday along Long Island then on the other side of Long Island Sound into Southern New England as a minimal hurricane or strong tropical storm.

Tropical-storm-force winds will continue to spread up the coast and inland from eastern North Carolina into eastern Virginia, the Delmarva Peninsula and south Jersey with hurricane-force winds along the coast.

Tropical-storm-force winds will overspread the entire eastern Mid-Atlantic tonight, with hurricane-force winds near the coast.

Tropical storm and possibly a few hurricane force gusts will make their way into southeastern New York (including New York City) and Long Island by Sunday morning, and into southern parts of New England.

Once Irene moves inland, tropical-storm-force winds should spread across much of New England and the Hudson Valley on Sunday into Sunday night.

From the North Carolina/Virginia border to Cape Cod, a water level rise of 4 to 8 feet, with higher waves, can be expected. More dangerous and record coastal flooding is possible.

Dangerous surf, deadly rip currents, beach erosion, and ocean over wash can be expected from North Carolina northward as Irene tracks northward.

Hurricane warnings are in effect from Cape Fear, North Carolina, north to Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts: this includes Pamlico, Albemarle, and Currituck Sounds, Delaware Bay, Chesapeake Bay south of Drum Point, New York City, Philadelphia, Long Island, Long Island Sound, coastal parts of Connecticut and Rhode Island, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.

Tropical storm warnings are in effect along Chesapeake Bay from Drum Point northward and the Tidal Potomac (including Washington, D.C., and Baltimore); and the New England Coast north of Sagamore Beach, Massachusetts, to Eastport, Maine, and then into southern Nova Scotia.

The winds coupled with wet ground will continue to bring down trees and power lines. Trees could fall on houses causing major damage.

As Irene tracks up the Eastern Seaboard, tornadoes are possible.

In addition to the destructive winds and coastal flooding from the storm surge, Irene is also a flooding rain maker and rainfall totals from eastern North Carolina to the Hudson Valley and New England could reach 6 to locally 20 inches.

For the latest on Irene, stay tune to The Weather Channel and log onto weather.com.


Chuck Bezio
www.cbezio.com