Saturday Aug 27, 2011 Irene Storm Update 15:30

Saturday surf mid-afternoon.  A confused sea but not too bad yet.

I went and checked the beach a little bit ago.  The beach was still there and not too much was going on.  The ocean looked very confused and ‘stupid’, but wave heights weren’t large at all, only around 3-5ft.  The surf will likely come up quick this evening and early tonight once the core of Irene becomes untangled from the Outer Banks.  So far, everything looks ok and rather uninteresting.

Dry air from the west is getting tangled in Irene, but once the storm moves back over water, and because it is large, it expected to maintain Category 1 intensity as it passes by the coast early Sunday morning.  Though the storm will likely be a Category 1, it will be a low-end, so expect sustained tropical storm force winds (39-73mph) to be more likely.  This is not a 1944 Great Atlantic Hurricane- but if you were born after September 1985 this will very possibly be the most intense New Jersey hurricane of your life so far.

Irene is a large storm.  Drying will likely be rapid once winds turn westerly since there is a lot of dry air to the west.  A long spell of dryness is forecast to follow the storm.

Here are some wind gusts in North Carolina right now.  The winds are sustained at tropical storm force over a large area, but none of the winds below are too exceptional as far as tropical cyclones go.

Kitty Hawk, NC             SE 42 gust to 58
Rodanthe, NC              S 39 gust to 64
Buxton, NC                   SSW 43 gust to 66
Ocracoke, NC              SW 45 gust to 55

As long as the power is on I'll do one more update after the high tide at 18:30.