Hurricane Irene path: Google just threw up a pretty useful hurricane-tracker tool to follow Irene. (Here’s the article they wrote about the tool, which lets you sort between a number of different metrics.) The giant cloud imagery really puts the hurricane in sharp contrast. Currently engulfed by the storm? North Carolina. Virginia Beach is next. DC and Baltimore will miss the worst of it (though us DC folks got nailed by a heavy ten-minute storm about three hours ago). Philly, NJ and NYC are directly in the path, particularly Long Island.