Colin Wilson

Rob Lightbown on his Crown Weather website said on Fri (26). “I fully expect Irene to regain major hurricane status today as there appears to be a new eyewall forming according to reconnaissance reports and this new eyewall should contract causing the pressures to fall and the winds to increase. Irene is currently tracking due north at a forward speed of 13 to 14 mph. The overall track model guidance is in pretty good agreement on a northward track today into tonight and then a north-northeast track on Saturday. Irene is expected to make landfall very close to Cape Lookout, North Carolina as a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday afternoon and then track across Pamlico and Albemarle sounds in eastern North Carolina during the late afternoon hours of Saturday. Irene is then expected to track very near the Mid-Atlantic coast as a Category 2 hurricane on Saturday night before making landfall on the southern New England coast just west of New London, Connecticut as a 95 to 100 mph hurricane right around early afternoon on Sunday. From there, Irene will track northeastward across central Massachusetts, southeastern New Hampshire and southwest Maine as a weakening Category 1 hurricane from late Sunday afternoon into Sunday evening. By late Sunday night and into Monday morning, Irene is forecast to track across central and northern Maine as a tropical storm before exiting into the Canadian Maritimes late Monday morning.”

Please monitor this storm closely and go to Crown Weather Services at www.crownweather.com and to the National Hurricane Center at www.nhc.noaa.gov/. We wish to thank Crown Weather for the permission to use their graphics and information. Please support them.