It's had a lot going for it, and plenty of Internet observers have already come to the conclusion that it could have been classified early this morning. . QuikSCAT came in.. a little elongated, but not really all that much, and appears to have sufficiently paired surface and mid-level cocs. Sure, the waters are a little cooler where it is -now- now that it has already gone bonkers and headed a lot north of where it was progged, and so over the past few hours cloud tops have warmed. But structurally it is pretty sound. There might be a bit of umbilical connection with the ITCZ they would like to see completely severed, but this is not unlike several of the depressions we have seen form in the extreme eastern pacific this season.

SAB is running a little slow with publishing their T reads, but here's the latest from about 8AM EDT
30/1145 UTC 15.1N 19.9W T1.5/1.5 98L

Track looks as if it has been turning at least a little more northwesterly, than north-northwesterly now. If you only read the TWOs, you would think it's been much of nothing and heading west to northwest. I don't get this, at all. However, 98L is now bumping up against the B/A High some more... and might start to hook a little more left as the day goes on... certainly could still put the CVs in its sights, although it's already looking possible that it bypasses them completely to the north.. maybe even rounds them from the north.

Here's a very striking recent water vapor image also courtesy NRL.