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http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/2/AmericanFlag.jpg Residents Brace for the Worst Hurricane to Hit the Area in Almost 20 Years (http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/hurricane-earl-takes-aim-east-coast/story?id=11520474)

http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/501/Hurricane_Hugo.jpgLeezel Tanglao - GO (http://abcnews.go.com) - August 31, 2010

Are we about to see a repeat of Huricane Hugo? What will it do to the energy and transportation sectors there? --Ed.

Hurricane Earl is on a collision course with the East Coast and Americans from the Carolinas to Cape Cod are bracing for the worst hurricane to hit the area in almost 20 years.

The storm could hit them late Thursday and prompt evacuations.

While East Coast residents could feel its wrath within 48 hours, the category 4 hurricane has already torn through the Caribbean with winds up to 135 miles per hour.

Strong winds flipped over an airplane and tore the roofs off homes in Puerto Rico.

In St. Kitts, waves continued to pound the shoreline as residents used barriers of sandbags to protect their homes.

High winds in St. Martin have toppled trees and split some in half and a once popular fishing port in Virgin Gorda was destroyed.

In Antigua, fallen trees blocked roads and homes were... http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/hurricane-earl-takes-aim-east-coast/story?id=11520474

The temperature here near NYC is in the 90-95 range, and the ocean temperature is unusually high. So if Earl does head up the coast, there won't be much cool air or cool water to sap some of the energy from it.

Charlie might appreciate this humor.

"Earl runs thru New Orleans with reckless abandon again" :D

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_qjZBTZLchv0/R4PxX4spS8I/AAAAAAAAAFM/rhEJz31VOcU/s320/earlcampbell.jpg

The temperature here near NYC is in the 90-95 range, and the ocean temperature is unusually high. So if Earl does head up the coast, there won't be much cool air or cool water to sap some of the energy from it.

The forecasters are counting on a cold front to push through New York and steer Earl clear of Long Island. If that cold front stalls...

I experienced 4 or 5 hurricanes while growing up on Long Island, including one where the eye passed over my house, and I had the unique experience of stepping out in the middle of a hurricane with clear blue skies and just some random gusts of wind and the eyewall all the way around me, before it passed over and the steady winds resumed.

Hurricanes can hit Long Island, and this one is a monster, so I hope it isn't this one.

Harry

It's been quite warm* here today. 91.4F. The record high for 8/31 was 91F so maybe a new date high. It was 87.8F at 6:15pm.

No hurricane here.

* Or "really f**king hot" as my wife put it. She's back at work after her vacation and her school doesn't have air-conditioning. To a Briton and a Mainer it's really hot. No laughing from the Southerners, thanks.

The forecasters are counting on a cold front to push through New York and steer Earl clear of Long Island. If that cold front stalls...

I experienced 4 or 5 hurricanes while growing up on Long Island, including one where the eye passed over my house, and I had the unique experience of stepping out in the middle of a hurricane with clear blue skies and just some random gusts of wind and the eyewall all the way around me, before it passed over and the steady winds resumed.

Hurricanes can hit Long Island, and this one is a monster, so I hope it isn't this one.

Harry

I experienced something very similar with Gloria in 1985. It hit at night, but you could see clear sky above. The winds went calm within seconds. We were outside (against mom's advice) looking for pieces of whatever blew away. It lasted maybe 10 minutes and then you could hear what was almost a rumbling and then the whoosh of the wind in the trees approaching fast. We got back inside just before the winds hit again.

In 1991, Bob actually did more damage, even though the eye missed central LI. I remember walking to the local park and seeing all the trees down and boats that had drifted up onto the shore. Down by Island Park, some of the homes had bathtub rings around the outer perimeter where the water had risen.

I am seeing a few articles drawing comparisons of Earl with 1985's Gloria, but the projected path looks more like 1991's Bob. We will know by the end of the week! If it does follow Bob's path, I will be very happy that I moved out of Long Beach. It does get a bit unnerving when you look at the end of the block - maybe 200 yards away - to the dune that is standing over ten feet high and seeing ocean waves reaching well above that level rise and crash to the sand, followed by the spray blowing in with the southerly winds.

If youse guys are interested in the models from which the Nat Hurric Ctr distills its forecast track, they can be seen here:

http://wind.mit.edu/~emanuel/storm.html\

DAS

Hi All:

Just an idea bouncing around in my head the last few years and it has no basis in science or fact but we know the GOM surface temps are up. I have to assume the equatorial waters of the Atlantic are up as well. If so and if nature tries to balance itself, would the East to West track that the initial tropical depressions, storms and then hurricanes normally take become more northerly in the future? The reason I am say gin this is these storms starting in Africa could begin even further south in the past (warmer surface temps I have to assume) but still north of the Equator. They are not so maybe, just maybe the predicted stronger Hurricanes in the future will track more northerly and as they near the American coast, will begin to sharply veer off to the north as Earl did? The more northerly course (for whatever reason they were prone to track over the recorded history of hurricane tracking) is just a guess but maybe, just maybe we may just be out of the hurricane business with global warming shoving the storm tracks northward and then the eventual shot up to the north that they all take while missing the coast altogether?

I know so little about weather prediction however?

Good Luck

Wayne