To clarify on the NRL designations: there is a big field project during the month of July in the waters just off of Central America in the E. Pacific called TCSB, Tropical Cloud Systems & Processes in long-hand. It's the fifth in a series of similar projects over the past 15-20 years or so...mainly focusing on tropical convection and tropical cyclone formation (or what happens with waves that form...as well as those that don't form). They've got that program set up for the forecasters down there to have easy access to the microwave imagery & other related data.

As for Bret...well, I'll have to eat crow. It kinda popped up on me -- I've been in Washington D.C. all week until now -- but definitely had the look of a tropical cyclone. That in the SW Caribbean piques my interest, but I'm not terribly concerned. Everything is shaping up for July to be an active month, however, so let's hope that we at least get some sort of break before it begins.