slow down guys,
Irene is still by far not on Her closest Passing Point to your northern location, She is still coming closer.
She is Not coming In, but you are still not on the closest Rendeview Point.
of course She strengthens, She is over perfect waters and under low-medium windshear as shown a few pages back, she did organize Her Center very well, looks all exactly as the very Big Bad Girls look when they prepare to start the Intensification.
She started that Process and She will not stop before She is a Mayor Hurricane, and I believe she will pass that point of becoming a Cat3 by Many miles of windpower upwards.
once away from Our Land she will grow very quick and Big.
Irene is now running a good 100mphr of windforces with Gusts in the Range of 115-120mphr.
Her Center is closed and done ready to rumble, from now on no Dry Air will do Her any Harm, and unless any windshear would exceed extreme High points she will stay immune to such, too.
in such conditions even a Landtouch does not have the big knock down effects as it has for smaller Storms.
here we have the Tailrains since maybe 30 minutes, but still more sprinkling than real rain, it is still nothing Bad on the Tailend.
Yes, I see it myself on the Radar that there is still a large amount of water over the Channel, but most is passing nearshore over the Ocean heer in Cabeza de Toro.
Irene sticks to Her WNW'ern Route, that is the One which save You Guys up North.
don't freak about some winds of 40-50mphr(If You would get such), you will be tonight just a Stonethrow away from Real Big Winds. I saw it Here today in Vicinity, just 60 Miles away, don't try to Date with that Girl.
she will approach Your Area with the SW part of Her Face, and that's luckily Her best looking Part, the smoother Portion, not the Ugly NE and East where the Heavy Tackle is Hidden and later tonight windgusts could easily reach close to 130mphr.
Yes, she is growing in visible Size, as she is a Storm growing Her windforce due that She increases the Area where She collects all the Moisture from.
Her pressure droppe quiet a Heck the last hours since the 5PM Update, Investigational Flights will run premanently now as the US knows what is brewing and we will get all available Data together.
watch the Radar Links and Watch the NOAA Updates. they usually update every 6hrs on 8AM, 2PM, 8PM and 2AM, but during a dasngerous Storm threatening US Soil they do updates in between as seen today at 5PM, I await to see an other Update by 11PM this Eve.
right now Irene will pass the Northshores over Water, Close but in a safe Distance for everybody who stays at Home IN the HOUSE. get some lights handy, I would expect the Power to go son up there, at least it always did when smaller Systems approached in the Past, so I would guess they shut it down on Irene's approach, too.
Mike