Ed, it's just that since the way the board is set up isn't topic driven, I'm always in the news rather than the forum (though I do check in there from time to time). I've actually had to walk people into how to get to the news if they want to read this site. They'd always e-mail me, "the forum's dead." Then I tell them to click on the number behind the latest news headline, etc.
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As for the tropics at large, you can see some of the MJO influence in the Atlantic now with the colors all brightening up and everything. And who told you first to look out for a potential storm in Western Europe this year? /this guy/

One thing that was of interest in JB's column today was his prediction on the pattern we're going through this summer and the possible implications for tropical season. We start off with a ridge centered around New Mexico and one off the SE Coast. The NM ridge will surge ENEward and hook up with the SW Atalntic ridge until you get a trof split in the middle and the whole process starts over again. If he's got it together in that aspect along with the MJO & Monsoonal influence on African waves, then we might see some tropical activity between the 10th and 20th of July and probably not so much between the 20th of July and 10th of August. After that, we'd see the uptick in the action just in time for some of the hottest water temperatures of the season. Who knows what that could bring? Also, over the last few weeks, he has hinted that the waves have been slightly too far north to get rolling in the EPAC. One has to wonder when the seasonal influences nudge the ITCZ a bit north of where it's been if the entire SE and all the Islands aren't sitting ducks.

Steve