Dry Air Band Wrapping into Irene, Should Prohibit Further Strengthening (August 26)

This is a water vapor image of Irene, the latest at the time of posting. You can see how much moisture there is in Irene. But do you see that gray band wrapping westward into Irene? That is a band of dry air. It may prohibit Irene from strengthening further. The dry air band is indeed cutting off the arm of storms from the core of Irene. I would think that this arm of storms would dissipate as it will no longer be connected to the centre of Irene, but with moisture everywhere, it could go by itself. We aren't entirely sure yet.