Irene is Long Gone, But Effects are Still Being Felt

There's no doubt that the forecast for Irene worked out quite nicely for us here in New England.  From several days out, forecasters keyed in on the northeastern United States as being in line for a potential impact.  As we got closer to the weekend, the details on how Irene would impact us became less vague.  

On Friday, Irene had weakened from a major category three storm to a weaker category three, and at that point it appeared as though New England was in line for either a strong tropical storm or weak category one hurricane.

That was exactly what happened.

Winds gusted 40 to 60 mph throughout the Merrimack Valley and southern New Hampshire on Saturday.  Tropical Storm Warnings were issued for tropical storm force winds that were expected.  You'd think that wind gusts of 40 to 60 mph aren't a big deal, but this time around they were.  The wind gusted to that strength for about 12 hours.  

Couple that with three to four inches of rain, and the roots system of the trees were weakened, making it easier for them to topple over.  That resulted in scattered to widespread power outages throughout the area.

It's nothing we haven't seen. In fact, the wind gusted to 80 and even 90 mph in a nor'easter in February 2010. That knocked out power for a week in many spots!  

Many ask why this storm was "hyped."  I feel as though meteorologists didn't hype it; in fact, the National Hurricane Center was spot on with their forecast track from days out!  The hours and hours of television coverage may not have been entirely necessary, but Irene was in deed a damaging and deadly storm up and down the east coast.

I hope you have your power back.  If you lost it for an extended period of time, at least the weather Monday and Tuesday was awesome!