Irene was a feisty one wasn't she?
As of this moment, Irene is still technically a tropical storm centered somewhere over Maine, but if you look at satellite imagery (Go the the Hurricane Center website for that), you can see that there is absolutely no defined circulation center and since it is essentially in Canada there is no fuel for it to restrengthen. It's about to get caught in the northern jet stream which will blow it away once and for all. As of this post, the maximum sustained winds are still at 50 mph with a minimum pressure of 978 mb, and this was for a cyclone that has been ove land for several hours now. Just goes to show you how strong, powerful, and long lasting these types of storms can be. Since she was so slow to get in and get out, Irene left quite a mess in her wake.
Last I heard, there were 11 confirmed fatalites that can be blamed on the hurricane. Most of these were the result of falling tree limbs. Property damage was extensive, mostly due to falling trees and massive flooding caused by storm surge. Most people compare Irene to what Isabel did in 2003, but actually, Irene was very similar to what Hurricane Agnes did to the region in 1972. Agnes was only a category one upon landfall on the Gulf Coast, but she had tremendous moisture built up due to strong convection (but poor circulation keeping winds down). Agnes was also a very slow mover, very similar to Irene. As a result, Agnes dumped feet of rain on the Mid Atlantic region, producing widespread flooding. However, wind damage was kept at a minimum. In fact, Agnes was responsible for some of the worst flooding in Ellicott City since the late 19th Century (14 feet above flood stage). Obviously, Irene came ashore as a category 2 hurricane, and had a much larger wind field than Agnes did, so Irene was much more responsible for downed trees and wind damage than Agnes did, but in terms of the motion, areas affected, and the amount of rain dumped, Irene and Agnes were very similar meteorologically.
As I type this to you, I was planning on doing a back to school post tonight, "celebrating" the start of the 2011-2012 school year. Instead, I'm doing another hurricane post as I am currently sitting at my old command center (Columbia) instead of Laurel as I have been out of power since about midnight last night. Also, most of the public schools have already bailed on tomorrow as power remains out in many locations within the National Capital region. HAPPY SCHOOL YEAR! Have a snow day...er hurricane day. I sure hope this is not a bad omen for the rest of the year weather wise. Hopefully the juice will be back on by tomorrow so we can get the year started on Tuesday (and that we don't have to already eat into our snow day budget without a single kid setting foot into the school).
Irene may be history, but we are not done yet with Hurricane Season, not by any means. Churning out in the Atlantic right now is Jose, a weak tropical storm that will dump some rain on Bermuda, but outflow from what's left of Irene will shear him to death. That's not my concern right now. Off the west coast of Africa there is an impressive tropical wave, which at the moment the NHC is virtually guaranteeing will become a tropical cyclone within the next 48 hours. These "Cape Verde" cyclones (named for the archiapelago located right there) tend to be the real monsters. Easterly winds carry them across the Atlantic in very warm waters, giving them plenty of time to intensify into massive hurricanes. Islands in the Caribbean need to watch this system very closely as it will usually take a week for it get across the ocean. It is still way too soon to see what kind of a track this system will follow, especially 7 or 8 days in the future. Nevertheless, areas that just got battered by Irene (including right here) need to watch it because we don't know where it's going or how strong it will get. If it gets a name, it will be called "Katia."
Of course you can keep here on Caputo's Corner for all of your Hurricane Season 2011 coverage. We are just getting to the peak. My hope is to be back dissecting football very soon. Opening day is in less than 2 weeks and college ball starts this weekend!
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