Hurricane Irene could still cross New York this weekend as category 3

Distance travelled ~ 613'398'400 km

Image courtesy of National Hurricane Center/NOAA

They're calling it the biggest storm in a generation. Hurricane Irene is set to bring flooding, power cuts and travel disruption to the east coast of America this weekend and looks like it may be the worst storm to hit the region since hurricane Bob in 1991.

Irene is vast. On Friday, the core of hurricane force winds extended up to 90 miles or 140km from the centre, while storm force winds spread out as far as 290 miles or 465km. If Irene was centred over London, there would be gales from Edinburgh to Paris.

Irene weakened slightly during Friday as slightly drier air was pulled into the storm along with stronger upper-level winds, but as it continues to track northwards over sea temperatures as high as 29C it is likely to be a category 3 hurricane as it makes landfall in North Carolina. (Check out NOAA for description of hurricane categories).

Over the weekend, the continued northerly track will take the hurricane right along the heavily populated east coast from North Carolina to New England. While interaction with the coast should weaken it, Irene could still cross New York as a full hurricane during Sunday.

Devastating winds of over 100mph would seem to be the most obvious threat, but in fact most hurricane deaths are due to flooding. The storm surge ahead of Irene is expected to lift sea levels by 2 or 3 metres, with dangerous waves on top of that. Rainfall totals of 10-15 inches (25 to 37cm) will be falling in areas that have already seen record rainfall during August.

It's been a long wait for the first hurricane of the 2011 season, but Irene seems to be making up for lost time.

Looks like an interesting weekend!

Keep updated with Hurricane Irene's development over the weekend via BBC Weather.

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