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Hurricane Irene - Discussion Part IV


Typhoon Tip

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5pm latest 'Reverse 911' from Westerly Emergency Management. Mandatory evacuation in effect starting at 6pm Saturday night for all of Shelter Harbor, Weekapaug, Misquamicut and Watch Hill.

Starting at 8am tomorrow morning - only residents and business owners along and south of Shore Road (Rte.1A) and from Happy Valley Road south along Watch Hill Road will be allowed access. This means access to ALL Westerly beaches - including MIsquamicut - will be denied unless you can prove residency.

By 6pm, evacuation of all residents and business owners in said area must be complete. No access - even by residents - will be allowed after 6pm.

Beautiful sunny day today with perfect 6 foot plus swells rolling in. The size and strength of the waves increased as the day went on.

Businesses and homes were being boarded up - and all trailers (Jims between town beach and the Windjammer as well as the Dunes club) were being moved out.

Very surreal to be down the beach this afternoon. Really got the sense something big was about to come down...

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I think something that hasn't been mentioned enough is that the guidance is suggesting an extratropical transition (ET) with Irene as it makes to the vicinity of nyc/li. http://www.nco.ncep....fs_850_048l.gif

On this plot from 18z gfs, you can see that by that point, cool advection is starting at 850 mb as the strong upper trough deepens over the region, so clearly the system will be becoming baroclinic. You can probably infer that that process might be getting started between hour 42 and hour 48. An extratropical transition might be a bad thing in this case because it'll lead to a further expansion of the already huge wind field and also even the western side of the storm is liable to get strong gusts mixing down. In my synoptic meteorology class at Stony Brook I learned that the 1938 hurricane was likely undergoing explosive ET when it made landfall on LI. Some storms weaken quickly when they start to lose tropical characteristics, but some maintain or even strengthen a bit when they become hybrid or baroclinic. Being in the right entrance region of the strengthening 250 mb jet streak consistently progged over the northeast as Irene moves north might also aid in this process. The sometimes explosive ET is why there's been several examples, most notably Hurricane Igor last summer, of hurricanes that have done very significant damage to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada. I hope I'm wrong, but I think that Irene will have a significant impact on the metro region and that trying to downplay it is a big mistake at this point.

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Just emailed friends in Philly:

"6-10 inches for Philly"

Never thought I'd say that for rain.

Philly will have a chance of pushing it's record rainfall in August to 20 inches!

(previous record is 12.1", currently they have 13.6")

NYC looks to be in the same "boat".

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To clarify my intent before - no, I am not writing it off. Tropical Storm is not something we boast a lot of experience with - gusts to 60mph would be dramatic enough.

Anyway, NHC said them selves that recon could not find an inner core - no core, no hurricane. Now, could one regenerate? sure - Until it does though, it should steadily weaken - just not sure what that would hold in store for us way up here, should that be the case.  Perhaps it transitions to hybrid/extratropical and that would conserve alot - be one helluva Nor'easter if THAT happened.   One thing is amazing with Irene though;  that radar loop that Will provided;  you can actually detect cyclonic curvature in those small convetive cells over the southern cordillera and Georgia - that's hundreds of miles from Irene's fix - that's pretty damn cool.  wow

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