I agree with you on that Rich. There is even an 'eye-type' appearance in the visible. There is a good closeup of it on Fox8live.com - click on "weather" then click on Visible Sattelite and you can see the feature - whatever it is - pretty well.

Kevin - it looks like crap, but I don't think it's the wave that's necessarily going to develop. It's only going to act as a catalyst or activating mechanism for whatever else is down there. There is already some type of low down there (smack in the middle of the Gulf) kicking off storms, so if the east winds do pile up more moisture, then a wave comes in, there is at least a shot for some strong thunderstorms or convective complex to develop in that region.

ShawnS,

Yeah. I know how you feel. I hate his ego and his politics, but he does point out interesting phenomina and goes the extra mile to present it to the public for free - things like model bias and potential errors with the MRF, teleconnections and possible implications for the US, etc. So I watch all his videos during tropical season and read his column FWIW. I learn things pretty often, so I'm not going to knock him. Anyway, I'd guess the chance of something happening down there would be about 70% by week's end and maybe 15% that something actually gets categorized as tropical. He did get the pattern that we're in right more than 10 days ago, so whether or not something happens remains to be seen. Anyway, it's probably going to mean some wet weather for someone between the FL/AL line and the NE TX Gulf Coast when it's all said and done assuming another trof split doesn't send the energy down to SE Mexico.

Steve