Hurricane Irene (2005)

Hurricane Irene

Category 2 hurricane (SSHWS/NWS)
Hurricane Irene intensifying in the open Atlantic Ocean on August 15
Formed	August 4, 2005
Dissipated	August 18, 2005
Highest winds	1-minute sustained: 105 mph (165 km/h)
Lowest pressure	970 mbar (hPa); 28.64 inHg
Fatalities	1 direct
Damage	None
Areas affected	East Coast of the United States
Part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season

Hurricane Irene was a long-lived Cape Verde-type Atlantic hurricane during the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm formed near Cape Verde on August 4 and crossed the Atlantic, turning northward around Bermuda before being absorbed by an extratropical while situated southeast of Newfoundland. Irene persisted for 14 days as a tropical system, the longest duration of any storm of the 2005 season. It was the ninth named storm and fourth hurricane of the record-breaking season.

Irene proved to be a difficult storm to forecast due to oscillations in strength. After almost dissipating on August 10, Irene peaked as a Category 2 hurricane on August 16 before being absorbed by a larger extratropical system late on August 18. Although there were initial fears of a landfall in the United States due to uncertainty in predicting the storm's track, Hurricane Irene never approached land and caused no recorded damage; however, swells up to 8 ft (2.4 m) and strong rip currents resulted in one fatality in Long Beach, New York.

A vigorous tropical wave moved off the west coast of Africa on August 1, initially weakening due to cooler sea surface temperatures. It moved westward and passed near Cape Verde, where convection started to increase. The system became more organized and developed into Tropical Depression Nine on the afternoon of August 4, 690 miles (1100 km) southwest of the Cape Verde Islands. Early on August 5, the depression abruptly turned to the northwest into an area of higher wind shear, causing some computer models to predict that the depression would dissipate, while others predicted steady strengthening. The sudden threat to the storm's existence prompted National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecaster Dr Lixion Avila to comment, "How little we know about the genesis of tropical cyclones." Despite the unfavorable conditions in its vicinity and its poor organization, Tropical Depression Nine continued to strengthen, becoming Tropical Storm Irene on August 7.