Tropical Storm Dean Spinning Up...Soon to be a Hurricane?

The worst case scenarios for the now weakening Hurricane Flossie seem unlikely to be realized--this storm will affect Hawaii, but will not strike it head on. In the Atlantic, though, our "D" storm--Dean--was just named by the National Hurricane Center. Indeed, you can see Dean starting to wrap convection around its low level circulation center in the image above. My latest "Storm Pundit" post, readable here, discusses possible scenarios for Dean's future...some of which don't look so good. Short version: This storm could end up in the Caribbean and very intense. Click here for more discussion of the weakening Flossie and the possibly intensifying Dean.