And, yeah, this kind of straight news is important to me, since my parents live just to the north of Little Egg Inlet
Hurricane Irene continues to barrel north Sunday leaving millions without power in what President Barack Obama said would be “a long 72 hours†for the East Coast.
The storm picked up speed as its center neared New York City, maintaining hurricane strength with 75 mph winds.
Hurricane Irene made its second landfall about 5:30 a.m. near Little Egg Inlet, New Jersey. It is expected to decrease to a tropical storm, although the storm will continue to produce heavy rainfall and winds. Flooding and power outages are expected across the Eastern Seaboard
Most of the rest of the story is political, attempting to show that Obama is In Charge.
Interestingly, the big kerfuffle was Steven Goddard claiming that Irene was not an actual hurricane, a story linked by Drudge. Goddard continued this meme for many more posts. Personally, despite being a big fan of his blog, I’m rather skeptical. As Confederate Yankee points out, Steven simply took screenshots at specific times from Weather Underground. Which made me go to the NOAA to look at data.
Here’s Atlantic City International airport
Wildwood, Cape May County Airport, NJ
Belmar, NJ (which isn’t that far south of NYC.
Currituck County Airport (located in very north east North Carolina, pretty much in Irene’s path)
Hatteras, NC, Mitchell Field
I don’t want to go down any conspiracy roads, I know people who were in Eastern NC during Irene. But, where are any readings showing hurricane force winds? A hurricane is defined as a storm having constant wind speeds of 74mph or greater. Not gusts.
You’re welcome to peruse the data (I’d do it quickly since it only shows the past 24 hours) yourself. Newark, La Guardia, Central Park, Kennedy International, none show hurricane strength winds.
That’s not to say this is not dangerous, folks still in the way. The pressure is still pretty darned low and producing high surge. The seas are rough. Don’t take chances, OK? Most deaths from tropical systems come from water, not wind.
Also, do not take this as an endorsement of Goddard’s theories (conspiracy theories?), nor that I am buying in to this: I’m simply offering 24 hour data sets.
Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.
