First hurricane to impact the U.S.

As of 6am this morning what was Tropical Storm Irene has been upgraded Hurricane Irene.

Currently a category one, Irene is heading for the southeastern Bahamas.  Moving to the west/northwest around 14 mph, maximum sustained winds are around 80 mph.  Preliminary reports indicated that widespread tree and powerline damage had occurred on Puerto Rico and more than 800,000 homes are without power on the island. 

Current forecast tracks take it through the Bahamas by early Thursday morning and then possibly along the southeastern coast of the U.S. by Friday morning.  Some indications are suggesting that Irene could strengthen to a category two hurricane before making landfall.

If Irene does in fact make landfall along Florida's eastern coast and then moves inland it could actually slow down our next cold front that is forecast to move through as early as Saturday.  What would likely happen is the front would slow down and then stall until Irene moves back out into the Atlantic either by the end of the weekend or early next week.  Of course, all of this depends on just how far north Irene will track.  If it moves out over the Atlantic earlier than expected then there probably wouldn't be too much impact for us.