BLOG: Active Weekend Ahead
The latest front to move into the mid-Atlantic states is going nowhere today. We'll need to allow for the possibility of a shower in a couple of spots, especially this afternoon -- but it's certainly not going to amount to what we're anticipating late tomorrow, tomorrow night and Sunday morning.
We continue to believe that as "Irene" moves northward and brushes by the Outer Banks of North Carolina late tomorrow afternoon, the weather in Ocean City and along the rest of the Atlantic beaches on the Delmarva Peninsula will start to deteriorate rapidly.
Expect rainfall totals tomorrow night and Sunday morning on the order of 3-5 inches along the I-95 corridor, but there will be more than 6 inches (perhaps as much as 10 inches) in Salisbury and Ocean City. Conversely, the rain in areas west of Carroll County may be hard-pressed to exceed 2 inches. As for winds, sustained winds tomorrow night and early Sunday in Baltimore will be between 25 and 35 mph, with some gusts of up to 60 mph possible, especially around daybreak on Sunday. At the Eastern Shore, the winds will be much closer to hurricane force, averaging 45-65 mph with gusts as high as 90 or 100 mph possible at around dawn on Sunday, when "Irene" will be making its closest pass.
We still think the center of circulation will be moving past the latitude of Ocean City at around 6 a.m. Sunday, and probably 30-40 miles off shore.
As of 2 a.m. today, the storm was moving to the north at around 14 mph. With an upper-level trough in eastern Canada expected to dip southward during the next 48 hours, that will cause the storm to "accelerate" as it reaches latitudes farther north this weekend. The only other thing we feel it's necessary to mention this morning is that the winds should cause many trees and tree limbs to topple, leading to several power outages. It has been brought up on more than one occasion this week that the excessive rainfall we've seen during recent weeks has softened the soil tremendously, and when the hurricane or even tropical storm force winds arrive, this will compromise the root systems of many trees, especially EAST of the Bay.
Stay tuned to WJZ and WJZ.com for updates throughout the weekend.
