Monday Irene Update: Carolinas start preparing

Irene became our first hurricane of the 2011 hurricane season early this morning. There has been a few significant things that have changed overnight besides the upgrade. The storm is tracking north of all the big islands in the Caribbean now. This is significant because now the storm will have little interference as it moves towards the U.S. This also means a shift in the track east squarely puts the Carolinas in the strike zone. Below is my video discussion of that plus additional maps. I would prepare now along the entire South and North Carolina coasts. Preparing for the worst and hoping for the best is the goal here. Get your supplies and plan together today through Wednesday. Thursday we’ll know who need to activate that plan. If you wait you’ll be fighting crowds for supplies late week.

Inland Residents should plan too, for power outages and possible flooding. Stock up on water, non-perishable food items, gas and gets some cash before the storm hits.

Updated Tracking 5-Day tracking map(Updates Automatically)

Spaghetti Model Plots

Here’s the close in HWRF model Wind Swath

It’s not like Charlotte won’t have any impacts either. Based on the GFS sounding we could have 60kts winds not too far off the surface, 3,000’. With the right/wrong track we could see trees and power lines come down, especially east of I-77. Stay tuned!