5PM EDT Update
Hurricane Warnings are up now for Sandy Hook, NJ to Sagamore Beach, MA. This includes New York City, Long Island, Long Island Sound, CT, and RI. Martha's Vineyard, and Nantucket.

Tropical storm warnings are up north of Sagamore Beach to the River (north of Boston).

Tropical Storm watches are now up from north of there to Eastport, ME.

Irene has a very large wind field and will be moving relatively slowly through the forecast track (For storms usually in this area), so there will likely be a prolonged period of high winds and very heavy rainfall.

Original Update
Some shear has appeared to the north of Irene (Actually stronger than forecast yesterday) that is impacting Hurricane Irene, and causing it to weaken somewhat. It has a ragged appearance on Satellite this morning, but it is forecast to return to major hurricane status later today and already has hints that this is underway.

The hurricane watch areas from yesterday are now hurricane warnings, and hurricane watches are now up north of Sandy Hook, NJ to the mouth of the Merrimack River (Just north of Boston), including Long Island, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod. This means hurricane conditions are possible within 48 hours.

The forecast track has adjusted slightly to account for wobbles overnight, but is still very similar to what it was before. Be aware, the pressure is still low in Irene, and the area of wind that is hurricane force is large in comparison to smaller hurricanes, even if the winds around the core are not is intense. Also a lot of storm surge has been built up by the large wind field.

The wind field of Irene is larger on the eastern (or right of the direction of travel) than the west, but still has a good reach to the west, anywhere that feels the hurricane force winds is likely to lose power across a good deal of area. The good news this morning is that the track shift is slightly to the east, so less inland areas may see impacts, but the outer Banks, and Long Island still are within the eastern area of the storm, as well as Boston. Adjustments back west or east are equally as likely later. Please realize the forecast is not a line, it is a large area of hurricane force winds extend out from the center ~55 miles on the western side, with tropical storm force winds close to 200 miles to the west as well. Irene is currently about the same size or maybe a little larger than Hurricane Ike in 2008, it is likely to be larger than Ike before it reaches the Carolinas.

Please listen to local media and officials, and do not let the wind speed drop fool you, the area of winds is extremely large for a hurricane.

What's happening weather wise or people wise regarding Irene in your area? Let us know here.

See the Forecast Lounge for more speculation on Irene.

Event Links

Flhurricane Disaster and preparatory information thread.

Landfall Area Media:
WECT 6TV - Wilmington, NC
WITN 7 - Eastern North Carolina TV (NBC)
WCTI 12 - Eastern North Carolina (ABC)
WNCT TV 9 - Eastern North Carolina (CBS)
Wavy 10 (NBC) - Hampton Roads/VA Beach, VA TV
WTKR 3 (CBS) - Hampton Roads/VA Beach, VA
WVEC 13 (ABC) - Hampton Roads/VA Beach, VA

Webcams: (south to north)
Live Myrtle Beach Cam
Myrtle Beach Earthcam
Bar Harbor Myrtle Beach Live Cam
Crown Reef Myrtle Beach Live Cam
North Myrtle Beach Controllable Cam (Flhurricane Recording of this camera
Holden Beach, NC Cam (flhurricane recording)
Oriental, NC Harbor Cam -- flhurricane recording
HurricaneTrack.com Tower Cam 1 (Hatteras) -- Flhurricane recording

Dare County Em Management

Papers:
Outer Banks Sentinel
Wilmington Star News Online
Hampton Roads Pilot

Power Outage Maps (roughly south to north)
Eastern Carolinas Power outage map
Virginia Power outage map
DelMarva Power outage map
Portions Maryland/DC power outage Map
Baltimore area Power outage map
Novac/Northern Virginia Power outage map
Southern Maryland Power outage map
Southeastern Pennsylvania Outage Map
Atlantic City (Southern New Jersey) Power outage map
Jersey Central Power outage map
Northern New Jersey PSEG outage map
New York City/ConEd Power outage map
Long Island Power outage map
Connecticut Power outage map
Rhode Island/Mass Power outage map
New Hampshire Power outage map

Keep up with where Mark Sudduth (Hurricanetrack.com) is as he drives around the Outer Banks of North Carolina

Chasercam live

Severe Weather Live Feed

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Irene Storm Surge Probabilities

Hope Town Fire rescue on Abaco Island, storm information

Updated Map of Mark Sudduth from HurricaneTrack.com, with video and radar for Irene approach See HurricaneTrack.com for more information.

RGB satellite recording of Irene.

Long Term Long Range US Radar of Irene

Level 3 Radar recording of Irene's NC approach (HCW)

Map plot of Irene overlaid on Hurricane Floyd (1999) as well as other notable New England storms

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Long term Central Atlantic wide area Water Vapor Satellite for Hurricane Season Peak flhurricane)

Long term West Atlantic wide area Water Vapor Satellite for Hurricane Season Peak flhurricane)