News - Blogs - Despite what you may have read Irene was a nasty storm

Despite what you may have read, Irene was a nasty storm
Published: 8/30/2011 6:36 AM
Last Modified: 8/30/2011 8:01 AM

Lock 8 in Rotterdam, N.Y. overflows with water, and a metal barge is crashed into the gates, on Monday, Aug. 29, 2011 during extensive flooding in the region as a result of Tropical Storm Irene. Irene left stunned upstate New Yorkers shaking their heads Monday at a crippling wallop they never thought possible: Cars and trucks tossed like toys, houses torn from their foundations, trees tumbling down roiling, muddy rivers like matchsticks and roads shredded by raging torrents. (AP Photo/The Daily Gazette, Patrick Dodson)

Greg Austin of Avon, N.C. tries to save a large fish that was washed out of a local pond during the storm surge from Hurricane Irene, in Avon, N.C., Monday, Aug. 29, 2011. Avon is one of the Hatteras Island communities cut off due to breaches in N.C. Highway 12 caused by Hurricane Irene. (AP Photo/The News & Observer, Chuck Liddy)

Unless for some reason you, too, were without power, or were just simply unaware, the name Irene has been beaten into your head over the past several days as the hurricane made its way up the most populated corridor in our country, pounding the media centers with heavy rain, winds and surf.

Irene was a nasty storm. It killed at least 40 people. It flooded large swaths of New England that caused extensive property damage. (See video below of two Army vehicles driving while submerged in the New Jersey flood waters.)

Irene will likely end up being the 10th billion-dollar storm this year, beating the record of nine set in 2008. That in itself if causing more issues.

But something struck me as odd, or at least made me a bit uneasy, about the reaction to Irene, particularly from the big cities that missed the worst of the storm.

The reaction on social networking sites or even on some larger media in places like New York City was that the storm was overhyped--and while that may have been true for them on that block in that city of millions, I doubt the people in Vermont thought the storm was overhyped. If anything, their warnings were underplayed and overshadowed by coverage elsewhere.

As Irene made its way up the coast, the damage was extensive from the Outer Banks of North Carolina to Maine. As it went over land, it weakened, as hurricanes are wont to over land. It made it back to the ocean, but did not regain the strength some forecasters feared it would bring up the coast.

In my humble opinion, the response by officials ahead of the storm was appropriate. Hurricanes are big, hard-to-forecast storms that are reliant on a number of factors as to determine their strength. Even tropical storms can bring a wide range of damage, from downed trees to flooding to tornadoes. Evacuations were appropriate, even if out of an abundance of caution.

My fear is that now, since some believe Irene was overhyped, they will not heed warnings when the next storm blows inland.

Tropical Storm Katia received its tropical storm status this morning. The storm is centered more than 535 miles west-southwest of the southern most Cape Verde Islands of the African coast. Katia is forecast to become a major hurricane by Sunday and is forecast to follow a path similar to Irene, though somewhat more northerly, and could be guided away from the U.S. mainland.

That more northerly route will take it past Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, which weakened Irene, but could affect Bermuda. However, any speculation is way too early, as Katia has a long way to go.

If Katia does make it to the U.S., will people heed warnings and make the best decisions, based not entirely on past experiences, but what is staring them down? Let's hope so.

--Jerry Wofford

Also, check out our northeast Oklahoma forecast for the coming week. But really, look at that weekend and Monday. Are those lower 80s for Labor Day I see?!

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Almanac

Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

	Temperature		Precipitation
Date	High Temp	Low Temp	Total	Month to date	Historical average
1	44°	16°	0	0.00	0.05
2	59°	24°	0	0.00	0.11
3	57°	33°	0	0.00	0.16
4	68°	37°	Trace	0.00	0.21
5	69°	29°	0	0.00	0.26
6	66°	33°	0	0.00	0.32
7	59°	38°	0.05	0.05	0.38
8	51°	34°	0	0.05	0.44
9	44°	36°	0.01	0.06	0.51
10	62°	37°	0.07	0.13	0.57
11	54°	28°	0	0.13	0.64
12	44°	30°	0.25	0.38	0.70
13	55°	40°	0.01	0.39	0.76
14	°	°			0.83
15	°	°			0.89
16	°	°			0.95
17	°	°			1.02
18	°	°			1.09
19	°	°			1.16
20	°	°			1.23
21	°	°			1.31
22	°	°			1.38
23	°	°			1.46
24	°	°			1.53
25	°	°			1.61
26	°	°			1.69
27	°	°			1.77
28	°	°			1.85

TEMPERATURE

RAINFALL

SNOWFALL

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Follow Jerry Wofford on Twitter for updates during severe weather conditions.

Tulsa weather milestones of 2013 (as of Feb. 12)

Highest temperature: 70 on Jan. 11 (Record: 115 on Aug. 15, 1936)
Lowest temperature: 15 on Jan. 16 (Record: Minus-16 on Jan. 22, 1930)
Hottest month (average): 40.5 degrees in January (Record: 91.7 degrees on July 1980)
Coldest month (average): 40. 5 degrees in January (Record: 21.7 in January 1918)
Most snowfall (day): 0.1 of an inch on Feb. 12(Record: 13.2 inches on Feb. 1, 2011)
Most snowfall (month): 0.1 of an inch in February(Record: 22.5 inches in February 2011)
Most rainfall (day): 0.91 of an inch on Jan. 29 (Record: 9.27 inches on May 26-27, 1984)
Most rainfall (month): 1.54 of an inch in January (Record: 18.18 inches on September 1971)
Highest wind speed: 30 mph on Jan. 30
Previous day with any rain: Feb. 12
Previous day with 1 inch or more of rain: Oct. 17, 2012
Previous day with any snow: Feb. 12
Previous day with freezing temperatures: Feb. 12
Read regular updates on Oklahoma's unpredictable weather and learn more about meteorology from the Tulsa office of the National Weather Service.

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Contributors
Staff Writer Althea Peterson started writing for the Tulsa World in March 2007 after previous stops at the Norman Transcript in 2006 and the Oklahoma Gazette in 2005. She followed her older brother from rural Wisconsin (with a public school that never seemed to call snow days) to the University of Oklahoma, but did not follow his pursuit to study meteorology. However, she tries to find as many opportunities to report on the weather as possible.

Staff Writer Jerry Wofford came to the Tulsa World in 2010 from The Manhattan Mercury in Manhattan, Kan. Originally from western Arkansas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Jerry has lived in Tornado Alley his entire life and is one of those people who goes outside when the sirens go off.

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