Holy mother of all that is holy. Photo of Irene converging on North Carolina.

[Ruby the Liberal]

:wow:

(Sorry, not a link DU software can parse. Yfrog is Twitter images)

http://yfrog.com/kh3kbkxj

[FLAprogressive]

1. looks fake. most images circulated around as hurricane clouds are fake.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. That is a cool, if scary, photo

I can't vouch for this one, but if this is real... not good news.. times square station

&xsize=640&ysize=640

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. That is awesome! Does look like alien invasion at Disney Orlando

Cool ride - the entire subway station implodes!

If fake, won't be in about 8 hours....

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I hope all this is fake

:hi:

but according to some we are just blood thirsty.

:-)

Sorry, right now in a very strange mood.

[cui bono]

9. I don't know but I heard they moved all the trains to high ground in case of flooding.

That's why they shut down so early, at noon, and also why it will take them a long time to get them up and running again, they have to move so many of them back into position.

But I'm not absolutely certain. I'm here in NYC working for a couple months and that's what a coworker told me. Funnily enough I live in L.A. and have had an earthquake and now a hurricane in NYC. And there's a tornado watch until 5am. At least my sublet isn't in an evacuation zone!

Edit to add: they could have moved them to a more central location like Times Square. I know they are worried about the storm surge bringing salt water into mechanisms so it's possible that photo is not fake since there's no danger of that happening in Times Square.

[Ruby the Liberal]

3. You may be right.

Showed up 3x in my twitter feed from regular sources, so time will tell.

If it is photoshop, kudos to the graphic artist. That is stunning.

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. Whoops - meant to reply to flaprogressive #1

[WillyT]

7. Here Ya Go:

:evilgrin:

:hi:

:kick: & Rec!!!

[NYC_SKP]

8. Same picture, different DU friendly link here:

wow.

[chrisa]

10. Das fake-ens. I think I've seen it before, or at least one like it.

:)

[SoCalDem]

14. Google "approaching hurricane"..it;s there

http://www.google.com/search?q=approaching+hurricane&hl=en&newwindow=1&biw=596&bih=411&gbv=2&sout=1&tbm=isch&ei=vu5ZTvOPN-zYiALg2aCuCQ&sa=N&start=0&ndsp=18

[Odin2005]

11. The scary wall cloud of DOOOOOOOM!!!

:scared:

[kysrsoze]

12. I'm sure it's real, but it's probably just a thunderstorm.

I've never seen a hurricane on TV or in-person that was as well defined from a personal perspective as in a satellite photo. It's always a windy, wet mess preceding a hurricane. It's a huge storm covering hundreds or square mile. You're not going to see a cloudline.

As for that subway photo, it's already been confirmed as a water main leak in NYC from 1996. Whoever just replied stating NY would store the trains above ground to minimize damage... I'm sure you're right about that. Makes complete sense.

[cwydro]

16. Yeah

I've seen that pic before and it's not Irene.

[SoCalDem]

13. This is my all-time favorite "waiting" pic

It has an eerie feeling to it..

[kentauros]

17. Nice long-duration exposure there!

I love nighttime photography :D

[Edweird]

15. Looks like a cold front to me.

[kentauros]

18. Rotating thunderstorm, yes. Not a hurricane, sorry.

Hurricanes are not so clean-cut on the edges. Plus, they are so large, you can't see the curvature without going up in the air above them or using a satellite.

Here's are three photos I took of Hurricane Ike's outer bands on the day before landfall. All were taken around 2:30 pm in the afternoon on September 12, 2008 from either my apartment balcony or the power-utility r.o.w. out back: