Ah, there’s nothing like the sight of hurricane-driven surf… the feel of gale-force winds in your hair…

…not to mention the taste of wind-blown sand in your teeth…

But seriously, folks, Brendan & Scott’s Excellent Isabel Adventure was fantastic! Sure, some cynical Orange County Republicans may scoff at the waves’ height, but trust me, the pictures don’t do them justice: the sea was stormy (and, dare I say it, angry), the wind was unrelenting, and the whole scene was just really cool. Here are some of my pictures:

(Check out the blowing sand in the picture above!)

The waves and wind were great, but weather nerd that I am, I thought the coolest thing of all was the view of the clouds, which — even hundreds of miles away from Isabel’s center — clearly demonstrated the “spiral banding” pattern that occurs in hurricanes:

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I’m home… and I have sand in my teeth.

Meanwhile, at 9:00 this evening, 11 days and 10 hours after she first became a hurricane way out over the open ocean, Isabel — now centered 30 miles northwest of Emporia, Virginia — has been downgraded to a tropical storm.

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Looking up at the sky to the west and south, you can actually see the spiral bands!

Just had a gust that had to be 45 or 50… and the waves are awesome!

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And the ocean waves do roll… and the stormy winds do blow…

Scott and I are en route to Rockaway Beach now.

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North Carolina radar at 11:52 AM:

I’ve been booted off both of my computers by job candidates taking online tests, so I can’t do much in the way of work at the moment… which gives me a golden opportunity to update y’all on Hurricane Isabel! :)

Here in Lower Manhattan, and especially up here on the 13th floor in Lower Manhattan, the winds are quite gusty. But the real action is down in North Carolina, where, as the National Hurricane Center declared at 11:00 AM:

…Eyewall of Isabel coming ashore on the North Carolina Outer Banks…

At 11 am EDT…1500z…the center of Hurricane Isabel was located near latitude 34.4 north… longitude 75.7 west or about 55 miles south of Cape Hatteras North Carolina. This position is also about 50 miles east-southeast of Cape Lookout North Carolina. The eyewall of Isabel…where the strongest winds are located…is currently coming ashore along the southern Outer Banks. Isabel has a very large eye…and winds within the eye will diminish…before increasing rapidly as the back edge of the eye passes by. People are strongly cautioned not to venture out during the eye passage unless absolutely necessary.

As of 5:00 AM, the Tropical Storm Warning that previously had its northern endpoint at Sandy Hook, New Jersey, has been extended eastward to Moriches Inlet on Long Island. You can see it as a blue shaded area in the latest track:

I’m not sure if the warning area technically includes New York Harbor or not, but I am going to officially consider myself warned. :)

Here are a couple of satellite views of Isabel as it approaches the coast:

This is a very unusual-looking hurricane, especially given how relatively strong it still is (a Category Two with 105 mph). Instead of a classic shape with a thick CDO, or central dense overcast, near the center, Isabel looks more like a spiral galaxy… or an octupus… with lots of arms reaching out from the center. This is the result of lots of dry air that has been absorbed into the circulation over the last few days.

Nevertheless, “there is still a slight chance of slight strengthening” before landfall, the Hurricane Center says. As of now, Isabel has a “classic concentric eyewall formation,” with the stronger winds in the outer eyewall, 50 to 60 miles out from the center.

Landfall will occur this afternoon along the North Carolina coast. Tonight and tomorrow morning will be the peak of the bad weather in New York. Here’s a local statement from the National Weather Service here:

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