Hurricane Irene – August 27-28, 2011 Long Island, New York View in Normal view using the down arrow to advance the slides. CNN Hurricane Irene – August 27-28, 2011 Long Island, New York Data from USGS- Town of Hempstead Gauges at Point Lookout, Reynolds Channel, Bay side

Thursday and Friday, August 25 and 26 were quiet days with a steady barometer. (During the 1938 hurricane that decimated Long Island this was the primary weather indicator.)

It was dry..

Sunny….

There were light winds

The winds were primarily from the South (180°) with some shifting around to the North and back again.

The usually high tides which accompany the new moon were expected over the next few days.

Then the barometer took a dive

The wind speed increased

The winds began coming from the North (0°) and then became steady from the East (90°) and then Southerly (180°) , Westerly and back to North over the next day.

Over four inches of rain fell in just a few hours on Saturday.

With the rain the relative humidity increased to 100%

The Easterly winds piled water into the bays resulting in conditions that are only to be expected once in every hundred years resulting in extensive flooding, erosion and damage.

Patchogue Southampton Bellmore Long Beach Pictures from Newsday With the advanced warning given by modern forecasters evacuations were ordered and people prepared as best they could for the worst.

The air temperature remained relatively warm during the evening of the storm.

The barometer returned to normal

The winds died down.

The winds were primarily from the South (180°) during the good weather that followed the storm.

After the storm there were several warm, bright sunny days.

There was no precipitation for several days

The temperature resumed normal diurnal cycling.

After the storm normal tides resumed normal fluctuations

The strong winds during the storm increased turbidity.

During the following week there was sunny, warm weather with lots of nutrients in the water column and the chlorophyll level, indicating algae productivity, increased.

A small increase in the oxygen in the water may be due to the increased productivity of the algae.

Irene - Data for Point Lookout New York August 27,28 , 2011. Complete information is available at : http://waterdata.usgs.gov/ny/nwis/uv?site_no=01310740 Southampton (CNN)

Additional graphs follow

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