Don't brace yourself for Sarah, brace yourself for Irene - Maps with path of the hurricane, video clip from space, special hurricane twitter tracker

By Patrick

Sarah may have decided that she doesn't want to play with the big boys yet, but Irene apparently wants to leave a really big impression, without much delay. So what does the situation look like right now?

Below are a few of the latest images (click on all pictures in the post to enlarge).

This satellite picture was taken just about an hour ago, at 16.32 EST:

Click HERE for the latest satellite picture, provided by NASA.

This is one of the latest pieces of information from the National Hurricane Center:

Almost the complete East Coast could be affected:

However, the detailed forecast provides a glimmer of hope - it seems relatively unlikely right now that Irene will develop into a category 2 hurricane - however, the probability for a category 1 hurrican seems to be quite large:

The team at Politicalgates hopes that you all will be fine and that nothing serious will happen in the end. I myself have never experienced a hurricane, so I really have no idea how much damage a category 1 hurricane could cause for example in a large city. From what I have heard, the cities at the East coast are in general not as well prepared for hurricanes as for example the cities in Florida. But hopefully, with all possible precautions and some luck, it won't be so bad in the end.

We have a lot of readers in the affected areas, so please keep each other updated in the comments. Our thoughts are with you, even from 10.000 miles away.

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UPDATE:

I just saw in the comments of our last post that our reader marieke02 linked to two excellent hurricane tracking maps, which are constantly being updated.

It seems at the moment that the hurricane will cross right through the entire East coast!

First tracking map (click for updated version):


Second tracking map (click for updated version - on this website, you can zoom in into the map, which is incredibly useful):

That's doesn't look very pretty. Take care, everybody.

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UPDATE 2:

Please note that the Weather Channel has a very good interactive radar of hurricane Irene!

EDIT: Here is another radar map, which I think is even better, as it's faster moving.

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UPDATE 3:

I just read an article at the major German news website "Spiegel Online" about hurricane Irene. They write that although nobody can predict how it will turn out in the end, the outlook especially for a city like New York is just frightening.

Translated excerpt:

According to the "New York Times", a category two hurricane could be enough to cause damage in New York of approximately $ 100 billion. In case the storm passes New York City with the current strength of 80 kilometers per hour, it is still expected to cause damage in New York of about of $ 25 billion. Between the skyscrapers the wind could accelerate, windows could be ripped out.

Let's all hope that these terrible predictions won't become reality, however, "Spiegel Online" also posted something else which doesn't inspire much confidence: A video clip with breathtaking views of expanding hurricane Irene from space! This clip should remove the last doubt that something really bad could very well happen, but let's hope that the worst can be avoided (on youtube you can also watch the clip in HD):

The view from space doesn't inspire too much confidence:

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UPDATE 4:

New extensive statement by New York City mayor Bloomberg:

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UPDATE SATURDAY 27 AUGUST:

There appears to be good news and bad news.

The good news is that Irene is predicted to turn into a category one storm:

This is the latest map with the expected path of the hurricane:

The bad news: If you zoom in into the map, you can see that the "eye of the storm" is still heading straight to New York City - I created this comparison (CLICK ON PICTURE TO ENLARGE):


So right now, according to this updated information, the hurricane is expected to reach New York City Saturday late evening - with winds of 75-80 mph and gusts of 92-98 mph.

This is the latest Satellite picture from NASA:

The latest satellite infrared picture from NASA:

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The New York Times has an excellent hurricane live tracking map.

In addition, somebody created a very good new website specifically for hurricane Irene with all kinds of up-to-date information (incidents, power outages, latest news etc.).

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New satellite picture from 9:54 EDT:

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I thought I "panicked" - but look at this new clip from CNN with worst case scenarios:

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Very good coverage about the hurricane on the weather channel livestream!

Impressive view: Satellite loop of hurricane Irene moving north.

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UPDATE:

Tips how to prepare for the hurricane:

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CBS has an excellent live stream which focuses on information about the hurricane.

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UPDATE:

EDIT:

I created a new video with the situation today at 17.00 EDT - several NASA satellite views of hurricane Irene.

TWEET:

http://twitter.com/#!/politicalgates/status/107585234459049985

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UPDATE:

I looked for webcams in NYC, and there seem to be quite a lot of them.

These are the best ones I could find so far - from ""earthcam", for example:

http://www.earthcam.com/usa/newyork/timessquare/

(you can choose between three different cameras there, click on menu under the main picture - the fourth one doesn't appear to work)

Here is a list of webcams in New York, provided by "earthcam."