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Irene makes waves
Published: 8/23/2011 6:51 AM
Last Modified: 8/23/2011 7:50 AM

An image released by the NOAA made from the GEOS East satellite shows Hurricane Irene on Aug. 23, 2011 as it passes over Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic. The storm is on a track that could see it reach the U.S. Southeast as a major storm by the end of the week. (AP Photo/NOAA)

A resident walks along Los Yayales beach as strong waves crash due to the approach of Hurricane Irene to Nagua, in the northern coast of the Dominican Republic, Monday, Aug, 22, 2011. Hurricane Irene churned into a stronger Category 2 storm on Monday evening, after raking Puerto Rico with strong winds and rain that knocked out power to more than a million people, on a track that could carry it to the U.S. Southeast as a major storm by the end of the week. (AP Photo/Roberto Guzman)

Michael Aymonin fills up spare gasoline containers at Costco in preparation for Hurricane Irene, Monday, Aug. 22, 2011, in Royal Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/The Palm Beach Post, Allen Eyestone)

The Atlantic has its first hurricane of the 2011 season.

Hurricane Irene is currently a Category 2 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. The storm is forecast to move slowly over the Bahamas and other islands southeast of the U.S. coast before shooting north on a crash course for the Carolinas early Sunday.

As of 4 a.m. Tuesday, Irene was moving west-northwest at 12 mph, about 105 miles southeast of Grand Turk Island with sustained winds of 100 mph.

As a tropical storm and weaker hurricane, Irene cut right across Puerto Rico, causing significant damage there and knocking out power to more than 1 million people.

Forecasters are saying that Irene will become a Category 3 storm and could become Category 4 before it makes landfall.

Think for a moment about the last major hurricane to hit the U.S. mainland. It's been a while! The year: 2008. The Hurricane: Ike. Ike made landfall near Galveston, Texas, and was the third costliest hurricane in U.S. history.

That three-year reprieve is worrying officials, who fear coastal inhabitants may have become complacent.

While the effects of numerous hurricanes and tropical storms have been felt along the Carolinas in the past several years, it's also been three years since a storm lade landfall there. That was Hanna, which made landfall near Myrtle Beach, S.C.

If Irene stays on track and intensifies, it will create a very serious situation for many spots across the Atlantic. That late summer trip to the Outer Banks? Yeah, put that on hold...

--Jerry Wofford

Oh, interesting side note: The word Irene comes from the Greek word "eiréné" meaning peace. So, there's that.

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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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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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