Here Comes Irene

Long Awaited Hurricane Begins Its March Toward Jersey

Rain has begun to fall in earnest here in Northern Middlesex County.  Clouds have been getting lower, thicker, and darker since I came in from work this morning.  Winds began to pick up a bit at around 2:00 PM EDT here in the Raritan Center portion of Edison.

It was about another hour and a half to two hours before the rain began falling in the area.  I’ve been out to shoot some video of the storm moving in, and the rain starting to fall here.  Looking at the Doppler Radar, the outer bands from the hurricane have begun to move over the Central Jersey region.  The outer bands first entered Southern Middlesex County at about 3:00 PM, and covered the entire county within an hour.

According to the latest data from Greg’s Weather Center in South Plainfield, there has been 0.24 inches of rain so far while the barometer has slipped to 29.71 inches of Hg.  After midnight, the pressure had been up to 29.93 inches, and rose up to 29.87 inches this morning after dropping to 29.84 inches.  Pressure this afternoon has been as low as 29.70 inches of Hg.  So, we are looking at pressure of a minimal tropical storm at this time.

The most recent advisory from the National Hurricane Center had the maximum sustained winds in Irene down to about 85 miles per hour.  However, the minimum central pressure had dropped a couple millibars to 950 millibars from 952 millibars earlier in the day.  Looking at the latest satellite imagery, Irene appears a bit better organized although there is still some disorganization.

Regardless of what has happened to the storm within the past 24 to 36 hours, it still could pack a wallop to the Garden State and points northward.  Peak wind gusts are estimated to 105 miles per hour, and that is still nothing to sneeze at.  In addition, the grounds are still saturated from over 10 inches of rain that have fallen in parts of Middlesex County.  With the steady rains that have been falling in the past hour, it won’t be long until there is a flooding problem.

Flood Warnings have been issued for Middlesex County until 10:00 PM tonight, and I would expect that to be extended into the day on Sunday.   The real brunt of the storm is yet to come.  Stronger rain bands are spiraling through the Delmarva Peninsula with tropical storm conditions.  Those will be arriving in the next few hours.  The Hurricane and Tropical Storm Watches and Warnings have not changed much since this morning. 

The exceptions are the following:  Tropical Storm Warning has been discontinued south of Little River Inlet in North Carolina, the Tropical Storm Watch from the Merrimack River to Easport Maine has been upgraded to a Tropical Storm Warning, and now there is a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from the south coast of Nova Scotia from Fort Lawrence to Porters Lake.  So, hunker down everyone, the storm is now on it’s way.