Landfall

Irene will be making landfall between 7 and 8 AM this morning near Beaufort, NC.  Irene is a category 1 with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph.  There have been some wind gusts at Cape Hatteras of 82 mph.

Irene is 100% heading this way and it looks like it is going to make a second landfall just to the east of NYC on Eastern LI, probably near JFK airport.  As it moves north, it will batter the coast of Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.  There are already reports of damaged piers along the New Jersey shore.  Look for Irene to slowly weaken through the day today and tonight, but will likely be a weak Category 1 or strong Tropical Storm when it makes it's second landfall in the Northeast.

On it's current track, the majority of New England will be on the East side of the storm.  This will make wind and the risk of tornadoes the greatest threat.  The risk of tornadoes will begin tonight and continue into midday tomorrow.  This typically happens on the right front quadrant of a hurricane once it interacts with land.  Right now Eastern NC and Virginia are experiencing this possibility.

Needless to say, we will be impacted by this storm, just not the extreme extent it was hyped to be.  Regardless, there will be some damage, there will be power outages and there very well may be injuries and God for bid, loss of life here in New England.  Last minute preparations should be made this morning and if you are planning on hunkering down somewhere other than your home, you probably want to do that tonight.  Getting to your destination Sunday morning may be too late.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

You can follow me throughout the day on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Jontheweatherman
or on twitter @jpkomarek.

I will do my best to keep you updated with the latest information and interesting observations of Irene.

Please be safe and thanks for reading!

-Jon K.