I can finally begin posting a whole lot more now because we have Windows XP up and Windows 98 out of our system. All I can say is XP kicks 98 in it's little butt as far as stability goes.

Tropics: Things are becoming more active, and the patterns of this season are becoming clearer to me. It looks like this season is going to occur in "spurts". The easterly jet (very, very impressive for July) coming off of Africa today could well be a season-long trend. One of these waves may pose a threat of developing, and that is the one that seems to be at around 11 or 12 north and 20 west. It has good convection and a decent satellite appearance. If it persists and if we see inflow on the west side begin to take place, development may occur. Even if development doesn't occur, we are taking a step forward as far as chances for development in the Eastern Atlantic.

The Caribbean convection is just for looks, for now. We need to see it make into the Gulf and develop an LLC that's closer to the convection for development to occur.

To sum it up, the horses are at the gate. When the gate opens, we may meet some horses that aren't nice.