Read all the different opinions on covering vs not vs sometimes. In the face of Irene hitting the east coast, I see a lot of posters are thinking of covering as this storms nears. I think our region has seen significant rains over the last 5-10 days. Most folks are not covering for those, because "wood is not a sponge" and so forth. So why worry about a single large event, where the bulk of the rain will roll off the wet wood surface anyhow? And further, why think about putting a tarp/cover on a wood pile now, in the face of 100+ mph winds? My only concern will be covering the splitter. I have a cover on the section of wood next up for the burner that is 15x30. It has survived all storms this past year with no issue. I may drop a few stones across the lead edge but that is it.