Noon Update: Hurricane Irene Moves Toward Northern Virginia

Hurricane Irene is battering eastern North Carolina and heading into southern Virginia now, with rain already well into Fairfax County.

Tropical storm conditions are spreading northward along the Delmarva coast, the National Hurricane Center said in its latest advisory.

The Category 1 hurricane has sustained winds of 85 miles per hour and is moving northeast at 15 miles per hour, according to the 11 a.m. ET advisory.

It is 50 miles west of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and 120 miles south of Norfolk, Virginia. The center of the storm will move across northeastern North Carolina during the afternoon. The hurricane is forecast to move over the Mid-Atlantic coast on Saturday night and over southern New England on Sunday.

Patch is live-blogging the storm coverage throughout the weekend. For frequent updates on the storm, local resources and information, go to the homepage of this site and look for the live blog there. It will be one of our top stories through Sunday.