Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic hurricane season, now has its sights set on the Bahamas and the U.S. East Coast.
Irene produced widespread tree and power line damage across Puerto Rico Sunday night into Monday. View Photos
As you can see on our projected path map below, Irene is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane (Category 3 or higher on Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale) by early Wednesday as it tracks in the direction of the Bahamas on a path towards the East Coast of the U.S. Friday into the weekend.
Interactive map: Hurricane Irene interactive projected path
TWC’s Exclusive Threat Level for Hurricane Irene
Find out the potential impacts from Hurricane Irene in the Caribbean, Bahamas and the U.S. on The Weather Channel’s exclusive threat level graphics below.
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We have increased the threat level in portions of the central and northern Bahamas to extreme. Hurricane Irene will track from the southern Bahamas to the northern Bahamas Tuesday through early Friday morning. This is a potentially very dangerous situation and preparations should be rushed to completion.
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Coastal portions of the Southeast U.S. remain in a high threat (red shading). This threat level will likely change as forecast confidence increases both in the track and intensity.
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The greatest probability of a U.S. landfall is in the Carolinas during the Friday night through Saturday time frame, possibly as a major hurricane.
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Keep in mind, the average forecast track errors 4-5 days out are between 200 and 250 miles! NHC intensity forecasts even in the 1-2 day range are regularly off by one Saffir-Simpson category!
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The second threat level graphic below shows that we expect Hurricane Irene to continue northward either along or inland over the Northeast U.S.
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The threat level in Northeast U.S. is low to medium for now and will likely change depending on the exact track and intensity of Irene.
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Timing for any potential Northeast U.S. impacts would be this weekend into perhaps Monday of next week.
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As always, stay tuned to The Weather Channel and weather.com for the latest updates on this situation. Tune in at :50 after each hour for a full look at the tropics.
