When I posted the SW note, the center of circulation stopped above the last A in Lauderdale. Now it's down on top of the "r and d". I realize that Florida and the United States jut out in a weirder angle than are depicted on flat maps, but based on the maps, it's moved a bit south. I realize that the last 3 positions (11am, 12 estimate and 1pm) show it at 26.2. But it's hedging downward a little IMHO (may be the angle of Florida as depicted on the maps as noted).

>> Less population & monetary damage, but the overall impact to the coastline will be far greater, based off of experience.

I realize the shallow issues they have from the bay eastward. And it's not like I didn't acknowledge it, but we usually measure hurricanes by monetary damage, loss of life, strength and windspeed. Hey, in New Orleans, a tropical storm off the Texas Coast (such as Frances 1998) feeding training rainbands on top of the city is worse than any direct hit of a Cat 1 or 2 on this city. So it's all relative to locale-specific and storm-specific problems. In this case, tidal damage and surge could flood much of the low lying areas of the Big Bend similar to what happened at St. Mark's during Dennis. But a high-end 1 isn't really comparable with a 3 or 4 IMO.

Steve