DING...DING...
Looks like round 10 for Irene. Some thunderstorms really going over the center now, but you can still see she's feeling shear. She's like Rocky in the later rounds though. The tenacity is admirable for a weak system.
I know what guidance and the experts say, but it's systems like this that I pay attention to 'til they are gone. Example, Andrew in '92 didn't even have the pressure of a thunderstorm while in similar predicaments. It followed a weakness to about 24 N, then got snagged by the ridge. We all thought it would spin down and go out to sea before that. Emily '93 was another surprise with less consequence. But it still effected the Outer Banks. So I'm afraid to speculate. Would rather just monitor it as it lives out it's life and hopefully dies out at sea.