That's an interesting tidbit that I'm a little confused on, At this point I thought the feature would have been a dry slot wrapping into the convection, but if it is an effort to form an eye (of sorts), then the system is more organized than I would have expected. I think it also gives a heads up that the system could intensify fairly rapidly at any point (particularly during the evening hours).

The turn hasn't happened yet, but as everyone has pointed out, who knows when it will happen.

Even with only 40Kt winds, I'm no longer considering this a weak Tropical Storm. So, I think upper level winds will now play a larger role in steering the storm. hmmmm what are the upper level steering currents at this point?

and is Katrina going to start making it's own environment? (Which I think it already is starting to do....)

-mark