Hurricane Irene Scales to Post-Tropical Storm
The must touted hurricane Irene was scaled down to a tropical storm and now scales down as a post-tropical storm.
The hurricane lost its momentum and sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (85kph), downgrading it devastation scale to a tropical storm. The category 1 winds the lowest on the hurricane scale, did not pack as much of a punch as other storms, but hurricane Irene's vast size, more than 400 miles wide, and slow speed, made it particularly threatening. It took 12 hours or more to pass overhead, wreaking damage estimated in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
The downgrading scale came soon after hurricane Irene reached Canada following a path across the northeastern U.S., where it downed power lines, caused flooding and forced evacuation of thousands of people.