Hurricane Irene Targets East Coast

*Updated 2pm 8/25*

Irene, now a category 3 hurricane, seems to have spared Florida and Georgia from being the victims of 2011’s first Hurricane, but the storm is still expected to strike somewhere up the east coast of the United States.

The current cone of probability has the storm crossing over the outer banks of North Carolina early Sunday morning as a major hurricane with winds greater than 110mph then making landfall again somewhere in New England early Monday with winds between 74 and 110mph.

Irene is currently crossing over islands in the Carribean with maximum sustained winds of 115mph. The storm is expected to hit North Carolina as a category 3 storm and continue on to Maryland and New York City, NY.

Two more low pressure systems are in the Atlantic. Only one has even a moderate chance of becoming a tropical storm and will continue to be monitored.