The growing Hurricane Irene could reach the coast of North Carolina this weekend as a major hurricane with winds over 110 miles (177 kilometers) per hour.
The storm could be compared to Hurricane Floyd, a devastating hurricane of 1999 that hit North Carolina and caused more than $ 9 billion in damage in the U.S. and Canada, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters, director of the Weather Underground website.
At 8 am today, Hurricane Irene was leaving the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The storm and its winds of one hundred miles per hour (160 mph) could, according to forecasts, to move northwest through the Bahamas and heading gradually north.On Thursday morning the storm is expected to be traveling north toward North Carolina as a Category 3 hurricane, which means you have winds between 111 and 130 miles (178-209 kilometers) per hour.
Irene will travel over very warm waters to move northward, allowing the storm maintained its intensity as it approaches the coast of North Carolina.
Hurricanes maintain their strength through the salt water has warmed to at least a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius), and the waters that Irene will find on their way north from the Bahamas, are even warmer.
The National Hurricane Center, through its forecast for the next five days, expected to reach the coast Irene on Saturday morning in an area near Morehead City, North Carolina, and move north-northeast direction on the Pamlico and the Strait of Albemarle to the Chesapeake Bay.
On Sunday morning, Irene might already be on the Delmarva Peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane weakened to winds of 74 to 95 miles (119 to 151 kilometers) per hour.
However, Masters noted that predictions five days have seen a wide margin of error, and that the current path of Irene may vary up to 350 miles (560 kilometers) east or west.
If the winds of the upper layers, known as jet streams, blowing south, the storm could move away from the coast, said meteorologist Keith Blackwell Coastal Weather Research Center at the University of South Alabama.
But if these winds do not blow south, it is likely that Irene hit the coast of North Carolina, said.
The storm could be compared to Hurricane Floyd, a devastating hurricane of 1999 that hit North Carolina and caused more than $ 9 billion in damage in the U.S. and Canada, according to meteorologist Jeff Masters, director of the Weather Underground website.
At 8 am today, Hurricane Irene was leaving the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The storm and its winds of one hundred miles per hour (160 mph) could, according to forecasts, to move northwest through the Bahamas and heading gradually north.On Thursday morning the storm is expected to be traveling north toward North Carolina as a Category 3 hurricane, which means you have winds between 111 and 130 miles (178-209 kilometers) per hour.
Irene will travel over very warm waters to move northward, allowing the storm maintained its intensity as it approaches the coast of North Carolina.
Hurricanes maintain their strength through the salt water has warmed to at least a temperature of 80 degrees Fahrenheit (26 degrees Celsius), and the waters that Irene will find on their way north from the Bahamas, are even warmer.
The National Hurricane Center, through its forecast for the next five days, expected to reach the coast Irene on Saturday morning in an area near Morehead City, North Carolina, and move north-northeast direction on the Pamlico and the Strait of Albemarle to the Chesapeake Bay.
On Sunday morning, Irene might already be on the Delmarva Peninsula as a Category 1 hurricane weakened to winds of 74 to 95 miles (119 to 151 kilometers) per hour.
However, Masters noted that predictions five days have seen a wide margin of error, and that the current path of Irene may vary up to 350 miles (560 kilometers) east or west.
If the winds of the upper layers, known as jet streams, blowing south, the storm could move away from the coast, said meteorologist Keith Blackwell Coastal Weather Research Center at the University of South Alabama.
But if these winds do not blow south, it is likely that Irene hit the coast of North Carolina, said.
