Heady with excitement over correctly figuring out early on from viewing the sat pics yesterday that Emily would slough off the outer edges, become more compact, and intensify a great deal, I venture a prediction. Got up this morning to find Emily a strong Cat 4; 145mph sustained winds. Radar looks impressive, eye well defined, and now Emily is moving into the creme de la creme of the Carribean as far as potential for strengthening. Reading the water temp map from Steve Gregory's blog, she is about to pass right over the candy store. All this we knew late last night and I thought then that she'd be a Cat 5 - I still think so. I think we'll see rapid strengthening today as it warms up, and again starting in early evening. I predict sustained winds of 160mph before midnight rolls around.

I don't have any skills to predict direction because I don't know any of the tech stuff. So I'll just hope she goes south of Cayman Is and spare them a direct hit.