As the sun begins going down over Franklin, from a wide view, it becomes easy to appreciate how much larger Idalia is becoming.

The tropical cyclone inner vortex was always small, but wrapped up a bit inside a larger monsoonal depression that crossed over Central America. It now appears that the southward realignment as the result of northwesterly shear working with what was probably otherwise a routine attempt at a loop, has re-coupled the T.C's tight vortex more with its parent monsoonal low. This could have significant implications for the size of Idalia's wind field, amount and duration of heavy precipitation (with attendant flooding), as well as its future track.

It will be informative to see if 0z runs initiate or quickly catch up to the more bloated cyclone.