Now That She's Gone, Hurricane Irene Described As "Overweight"

Irene from space, via NASA

Thankfully, Hurricane Irene didn't inflict the damage that was predicted of her on New York City, but now that she's out of earshot, we're calling her fat and slow. According to the Times, the storm was "like an overweight jogger just holding on to the end of a run." Meteorologists expected Irene's eyewall replacement cycles—when the center of the hurricane contracts and is replaced by an outer band, strengthening the storm—to make her at least a Category 2 storm by early Saturday.

But that didn't happen. "There were a lot of rain bands competing for the same energy," a hurricane specialist says, "So when the eyewall collapsed, there were winds over a large area," diluting the strength. At one point, Irene was 600 miles wide.

Additionally, while experts correctly predicted the path of Irene, they couldn't predict the unrelated wind—called wind shear—that blew into the region from the Great Lakes. "When the wind is different in either speed or direction at different heights, hurricanes don't like that," a scientist at Columbia University notes. "Without argument, it could have been much worse," the National Hurricane Center's spokesman tells the Daily News.

However, many folks in New Jersey and upstate weren't very lucky (and of course those in the Carolinas and Virginia). Governor Chris Christie estimated that the damage would be in the "in the billions of dollars if not in the tens of billions of dollars," thanks to flooding and downed power lines that has left 625,860 homes without power today.

In New York, Governor Cuomo is taking an aerial survey of the damage, which he believes will be in the "tens of millions," including devastating flooding along the Mohawk river. Towns upstate like Margaretville and Maplecrest were completely overrun with water, wrecking bridges and trapping citizens in their cars and homes. Currently, 398,000 people are without power in New York state, but 95% are expected to have it restored by Friday.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in News on August 29, 2011 2:30 PM

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Spirit of 76

Meteorologists expected Irene's eyewall replacement cycles—when the
center of the hurricane contracts and is replaced by an outer band,
strengthening the storm—to make her at least a Category 2 storm by early
Saturday.

National Hurricane Center Director Bill Read said meteorologists successfully forecast the track of Irene but still have trouble predicting the intensity of hurricanes.

"Without argument, it could have been much worse," the National Hurricane Center's spokesman tells the Daily News.

What? But commenters like groganz kept telling us that every expert was 100% certain days before Irene hit that she was weak and would do nothing but weaken further. groganz read it himself on the websites and double-checked their calculations using his years of personal experience in meteorological research, as well as crunching the raw data using advanced hurricane simulations running on his home PC.

groganz

Note the sentence: "Meteorologists expected Irene's eyewall replacement cycles ... to make her at least a Category 2 storm by early Saturday." When did I make my prediction? On Saturday, when it was already clear this would not happen.

At least I owned up to being wrong about what would happen after the storm passed over NYC. Based on all the data I've collected, you are a complete fool.

Spirit of 76

Your "prediction" of weakness preceded the increased wind shear that badly weakened Irene early Sunday morning. Face it, you were basically guessing yet accusing anyone and everyone disagreeing with you of being ignorant of science.

groganz

Saturday, 11AM:

IRENE IS A CATEGORY ONE HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON HURRICANE WIND SCALE. SLIGHT WEAKENING IS FORECAST AS IRENE CROSSES EASTERN NORTH CAROLINA...BUT IRENE IS FORECAST TO REMAIN NEAR HURRICANE STRENGTH AS IT MOVES NEAR OR OVER THE MID-ATLANTIC STATES AND APPROACHES NEW ENGLAND.

I'd say my guess was educated.

SonnyBobiche

Just be thankful that we don't live in Italy.

Like something out of the Dark Ages, an Italian prosecutor has indicted a number of seismologists for failing to warn people of an impending earthquake! For a country that has the most earthquakes and volcanoes in Europe, they'll soon run out of seismologists.

Rocknrope

Hold the phone - you mean that meteorologists actually get things wrong? Zounds!

Roger_the_Shrubber

Should have been named hurricane Rosie O'Donnell.

B Tog

Media outlets over hyped this storm. Honestly there were making it seem like half the eastern seaboard was gonna get wiped out. when to storm passed over us in the Bahamas it was a lot stronger.

ogie

damn that's a big bitch,

LtWorf

Looks like Chris Christie & Hurricane Irene have something in common after all.

SonnyBobiche

Oh, boy those fat jokes never get old. Do they? Look, a fat politician, that's funny!

How about other famous politicians who could not succeed in our modern TV looks obsessed society:

Look, FDR is crippled. Hilarious!
Lincoln is so ugly the camera broke!
That Washington has false teeth, Creepy!
Eisenhower had heart surgery. Time to Call Leno and his heart attack jokes.

On the other hand, that Harding was a good looking and elegant dude.

LtWorf

What do you expect? The post both contained 'overweight' and 'Chris Christie'. If it wasn't me, then someone else would've had no choice but to post something.

SonnyBobiche

Didn't mean to single you out. It was more a of a general comment.

I don't mind celebrity fat jokes but politicians should be attacked on their performance, not looks. I still think that Lincoln could never be elected President today and that's our loss.

diablofreak

At least Irene is moving on its own. I'm not so sure about Christie.

Colonel_Ingus

"So when the eyeball collapsed, there were winds over a large area,"

Jeeezus guys, at least get your transcription correct. It's called an eye-wall. It's the wall of the eye, go figger.