Agreed, I think we're all anxiously awaiting recon into the storm. My guess is that it's not quite as strong as the current estimates, but it's not far off...say 60mph instead of 65mph. This is based more off of the low-level features needing time to catch up to the satellite appearance/mid-level organization in terms of wind speed than anything, however. I bring up the more northward motion, as the 24hr forecast point for Irene from yesterday morning was 27.2N/66.4W. Now, it's 28N/66.4W...may not seem like much, but that 0.8deg is 55mi/89km further north than expected and could play a big difference. NHC forecast has incorporated this with the model guidance and seems pretty much on track right now.