Above: Tropical Storm Gordon at 0445UTC Aug. 17, 2012

Tropical Storm Gordon has a good chance of becoming a hurricane within the next 48 hours, and presently the official forecast from NHC calls for Gordon to reach Category 1 by 11AM this morning (Aug. 17th).

At present, Gordon appears to be struggling to intensify further, having some dry air pushing in from its west and southwest with shear increasing from those directions as well. It is possible that Gordon drops from 70MPH to 65MPH by the 5AM advisory, but such weakening would likely be only temporary, as the cyclone will probably still become a hurricane.

North Atlantic tropical cyclones usually don't capture much interest, but there a few are exceptions. Gordon could be one of these, as it is forecast to come very close to, and possibly cross the the Azores islands, as a strong tropical storm within the next 72 hours or so.

Interestingly, our last Hurricane Gordon (2006) also crossed the Azores, on September 20th of that year, between the islands of Santa Maria and SÃ£o Miguel. Hurricane force gusts were recorded on land.

2006's Gordon went on to become a vigorous Post-Tropical Cyclone (with quite a bit of tropical characteristics remaining), producing widespread strong tropical storm force winds, possibly with pockets of sustained hurricane force winds, along southwestern Europe and the United Kingdom. A peak gust of 114MPH was recorded at Punta Candieira in Galicia on Spain's northwest coast.