What Saved the Northeast and New England from Hurricane Irene?

Dry air! Dry air from the Midwest and the South wrapped into the hurricane during the overnight hours, saving the Northeast and New England from experiencing the full wrath of Hurricane Irene. While its core winds were still whipping at hurricane strength, and the storm and tidal surges and waves were still rising near to expected levels, the other major component of this hurricane, its rain, all but dried up overnight.

As Hurricane Irene was approaching the U.S. from the Bahamas, on Thursday, August 25, high pressure started to build into the interior of the Midwest, after a front cleared the Northeast, from the Midwest. Two days later, a stretch of dry air from Texas through the Southeastern states, as well as the dry air from the Midwest, intruded Hurricane Irene during the day, Saturday, and especially during the overnight hours.

Even before the overnight hours of Saturday night, the southern half of Hurricane Irene began to dissipate, with much of its rain only falling on its northern and western side. As more and more dry air wrapped into the hurricane, from the west and south, less and less water vapor was available to the hurricane.

Had the dry air not wrapped into the hurricane, not only would the rains have been torrential, but the strength of the hurricane wouldn't have diminished like it did. The only reason it had the staying power that it did, despite the dry air wrapping into it, is because of its monstrous size.

Hurricane Irene had the potential to cause a lot of flooding and wind damage in the Northeast and New England, and for a while looked as if it were going to soak the regions with a good foot of rain and with its storm and extraordinary tidal surges, and whip however many of NYC's over 5000 skyscrapers it could with its high winds. However, without nearly as much rain as was expected, and hurricane and tropical storm force winds giving way to dry air in its midst, Hurricane Irene will spin off into history as the hurricane that almost changed everyday life for a while in the Northeast and New England.

T. H. Pankey is an adventurer in NYC. With so much happening in NYC, and a predisposition toward being involved with good things, his experiences in the city have been as far-flung as simply riding the subway just to see new areas to dining in one of the its finest restaurants in the heart of the city.