Hurricane Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season, has now organized itself into a major storm and is barreling northward toward the United States’ eastern coastline. Several factors have contributed to the growing strength of the storm, now a Category
As Hurricane Irene rumbles through the Atlantic Ocean, it needs fuel to sustain itself. Warm water is the main fuel, and there is plenty of it right now, as there usually is this time of year. The map above shows sea surface temperatures (SST) in the Atlantic…
On August 22, 2011, Irene, the first hurricane of the Atlantic hurricane season, was spinning over the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico, lashing the islands with wind and rain. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite
Irene formed as a tropical storm east of the Leeward Islands on August 20, 2011. By August 22, the storm had strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane. At 2:00 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time on August 22, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Irene had
