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Health & Fitness

Irene Fades but Her Wrath Lingers On

Irene leaves 21 dead and more than $7 million in damages.

Irene is history now but in her wake she leaves 21 dead and more than $7 billion in damages. North Carolina and Virginia received up to 18 inches of rainfall, and more than 4.5 million people were left without power due to downed trees and power lines.
 
This storm could have been much worse had it strengthened to a CAT 2-4 like the models were initially predicting. Some of the models depicted this storm far in advance and gave everyone a chance to prepare. I've included one image that showed Irene heading directly for Atlanta...you just never know.

I was reading an opinion article on FOXNews.com about how we don't need the National Weather Service, that it's a relic of the past. Their arguement was that that are lots of private companies (Weather Channel/Accuweather) that could do the job. It's a shame they don't really get their facts straight nor do they apparently realize that the data the the Weather Channel and Accuweather uses comes from the NWS as do all of their satellite images, radar images, as well as just about any other meteorological piece of information you can imagine. 

I've included the final image for radar estimated storm rainfall totals. You can see where the bulk of the rain fell and how sharpe the cutoff was on the west side of the storm.

Please remember, whenever you need weather information, please visit us at DaculaWeather.com. You can also get the latest weather information by following us on Twitter and Facebook.DaculaWeather.com... Your Window to the Weather

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