Hurricane Irene Poll

Irene Visits Forest Hills

Damage in Forest Hills

A tree down on 75th Ave. this morning in Forest Hills...

It looks like the center of the hurricane will pass almost right over Manhattan by around 8 a.m. or so this morning. We may get some even stronger winds as it does since we will be on the eastern side of the eye.

From AccuWeather forecaster Henry Margusity: "The HRR model shows the hurricane force winds that are off the coast slamming Long Island at 9am Sunday. Very Bad to 70-80 winds coming into that area."

Virtually all of New Jersey is now getting hit by very heavy rain.

Latest weather reports says Irene remains on track to come ashore somewhere in the NYC/Long Island area tomorrow morning. From the National Weather Service:

Tonight...Tropical storm conditions expected with hurricane conditions possible. Rain with isolated thunderstorms. Rain may be heavy at times. Lows in the lower 70s. East winds 30 to 40 mph with gusts up to 55 mph...increasing to 45 to 55 mph with gusts up to 65 mph after midnight. Chance of rain near 100 percent.

Sunday...Hurricane conditions expected. Rain with isolated thunderstorms in the morning...then rain in the afternoon. Rain may be heavy at times in the morning. Humid with highs in the upper 70s. Northeast winds 55 to 75 mph...becoming northwest 50 to 70 mph in the afternoon. Gusts up to 85 mph. Chance of rain near 100 percent.

Sunday Night...Tropical storm conditions possible with hurricane conditions also possible. Mostly cloudy with a chance of showers in the evening...then mostly clear after midnight. Less humid with lows in the lower 60s. Northwest winds 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 45 mph...diminishing to 15 to 20 mph with gusts up to 30 mph after midnight. Chance of rain 50 percent. 

What's amazing looking at the radars now is that the center of the hurricane isn't even expected to reach Atlantic City until 6 a.m.! They have been having torrential rains down there for hours already.

Hurricane Irene Update

It looks like we are just about to get into the first sustained rain from one of the larger outer bands of the hurricane... So far we've just had a few fast-moving squalls. The computer models are now showing the eye of Irene moving somewhere over our area Sunday morning, either just to the west of the City or somewhere in the vicinity of the Queens/Nassau County border. So we are essentially right now kind of in the bullseye here in Forest Hills. Thankfully, the hurricane has lost some of its power so instead of 100 mph winds we will get gusts up to 80 and sustained winds of 50 to 65 or so. Which is pretty bad but could be much worse!

 From AccuWesther Meteorologist Henry Margusity:

"We pulled the track west so Irene moves over Atlantic City and by Sunday 8am, the left eye wall be sitting right over New York City."

Mass Transit Suspended As of Noon Saturday

From NY Times:
New York City to Shut Down Mass Transit on Saturday at Noon

With Hurricane Irene pushing relentlessly toward the East Coast, officials made plans to shut down New York City’s sprawling subway and bus system beginning at noon on Saturday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said.

The commuter rail lines that serve Long Island, Westchester County and Connecticut will also be shut down.

Officials decided to go ahead with the transit shutdown, which they had first mentioned on Thursday as a possibility at a City Hall briefing on Thursday, as the city was evacuating hospitals and nursing homes in low-lying areas. State officials continued arrangements for coordinating emergency services and restoring electricity if the storm does the kind of damage many fear.

Hurricane Irene Update

From one of the meteorologists I closely follow, Accuweather's Henry Margusity. This was posted about an hour ago:

Track is now worse case for Mid-Atlantic. Damaging winds and flooding from eastern NC to New England including DC to NYC corridor. Very bad.

It looks like this will probably be the first of many posts I will be doing about this Hurricane, which could go down as a historical storm for New York City if the forecasts materialize.

The New York City/Long Island area has been way overdue for a major hurricane. They are saying this one may be on the magnitude of the famous 1938 "Long Island Express," which caused a lot of devastation on Long Island. Since that year the population on Long Island has expanded to the millions.

Forest Hills is on high ground and pretty far inland, so we should be able to ride out the hurricane pretty well. I would say if it does go to our West, more over New Jersey or Manhattan, expect mostly damaging winds here and flooding rains. But we would not be impacted by the devastating storm surge like other areas of the City and much of the south and north shores of Long Island.