Hurricane Irene is now making it's crawl up the Mid-Atlantic coast as the morning continues. The latest advisory from the National Hurricane Center brings the hurricane just east of the Maryland and Delaware beaches, scraping the New Jersey shore, with eventual landfall in Eastern New Jersey. The storm is then forecast to pass near or over New York Harbor before moving north of the area. As the hurricane interacts with a favorable upper level jet pattern--prolific rains will develop this evening and continue into the overnight. The rain will be extremely heavy and blinding at times. Combined with tropical storm to hurricane force wind gusts, conditions will become very dangerous. Along the area beaches and harbors/bays, these conditions will be topped off with the presence of a dangerous storm surge, which will be enhanced by astronomical high tide at 8:00am on Sunday morning. There is the potential for widespread flooding, beach erosion, tree and property damage. Please visit our brand new HURRICANE IRENE Page on the top link bar near the banner for the information on the multi-faceted threat. In addition, visit our Hurricane Irene Safety page for information on how to prepare for the hurricane. Featured image: Hurricane Irene re-entering the Atlantic Ocean after landfall in Eastern North Carolina on the evening of August 27th, 2011. Click to animate. 


1:00am: Over the last hour, we lost power---and our video briefing will be unable to be posted until the early morning. We are using alternate sources to update our text products and continue to stay live on Facebook and Twitter. 


11:15pm: Many areas in New Jersey are without power as well as areas in the NYC Metro.


10:45pm: Heavy bands of rain and wind approaching the area.


9:00pm: Tornado Warnings are now being issued for portions of the NJ Shore. Please immediately reference your National Weather Service for information on your specific area, and visit us on Twitter for instant relay of warning information. 


8:05pm: Tornado Watch now in effect for the NJ Shore, NE NJ, NYC Metro, LI, and SW CT


7:06pm: Tornado Watch is now in effect for the entire New Jersey shore from Cape May to Monmouth County. 


7:05pm: A driving ban and state of emergency is in place in Union County, New Jersey starting at 8:00pm.


5:42pm: Hurricane Irene is now back over the open waters of the Atlantic after a 12 hour period over the Outer Banks.


Hurricane Irene:  Briefing Video | Hazards Overview | Forecast Track | Safety Page

*This post is a a "Live Thread", meaning it will be automatically updated by our forecasters, and stay on the main page. We have set up a link area above for handy information that would be otherwise noted in a longer post. Also, visit the Hurricane Irene tab at the top of the page for hazards information, and view our latest Hurricane Irene Briefing video in the linkbar just above this paragraph. Feel free to comment below and interact with our team of forecasters during the storm's approach and impact on our area.