Hurricane Donna was a storm that took a similar path but she actually first made landfall in Florida and traveled all the way up the coast.
Hurricanes forming in the Cape Verde Islands and barreling across the Atlantic have a long time and a lot of water to strengthen. If they get into the warmer and shallower Gulf they will typically strengthen as well.
Luckily Irene hooked north into cooler water. Hatteras seems to catch everything that brushes by and yes there is some flood danger, but not any more than you’d get from a slow moving TD. I will say this, it is a delicate balance between urging vigilance and fomenting hysteria. I think the media wanted something juicy on which to report, nanny staters wanted to be able to swoop in with FEMA trailers and debit cards and pat themselves on the back over how well they managed this “crisis” and some of those in its path wanted to be able to talk about how they “survived” Hurricane Irene.
Perhaps we Floridians are just jaded. Get back to us when you have an Andrew on your hands :-)
Andrew was just terrible! My mom lived in Fla at the time.
And, if I remember correctly, Andrew didn’t attain full strength until just before land-strike? These storms are so unpredictable, and there is still a limit to perfect knowledge.
That said, the terrain, composition of the earth, and the population density in the coastal areas Irene is heading for make it dangerous for all living there.
Did you see the post upthread of the warmer water temps Irene will be traveling along? What do you think, are they cool enough to encourage weakening in a storm of this size?
Took out most of the homes on Brigantine Island,NJ.
Thankfully not many homes on the island back in 1960.
Donna was an odd one wasn’t it? It came across the middle Keys as a cat4, did enormous damage, then moved up the west coast of Florida and came in around the Tampa Bay area, then hit NC, or SC, can’t recall which, then moved up the Eastern Seaboard. Donna visited a lot of places in her weird journey.
Donna was a huge storm in 1960 it took all the water out of Fla. Bay and then it allccame back again just like this one in NC only more dramatic in a much larger bay.