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With three tropical cyclones and a couple of aspirants in the Atlantic Basin, hurricane forecasters are challenged. First, there is a small low pressure center--harboring some DNA of recently-departed Ivan--moving WNW into the central Gulf of Mexico. Convection flared up near the low this morning, but the system continues to fight shearing winds aloft. So, the distant relative of Ivan may or may not spin up into a depression, but at the very least, it may hurl some showers and squally weather toward the northwest and north-central Gulf Coast. Hurricane Hunters are scheduled to investigate the disturbance this afternoon. Meanwhile, Hurricane Jeanne, several hundred miles east of the Bahamas, is becoming more worrisome. Jeanne is migrating toward the south now, but a large high pressure ridge building north of the storm may drive it west, back toward the southeast coast of the U. S. over the next several days. Come the weekend, residents from the Carolinas to northeast Florida may be glued their TV sets, watching The Weather Channel... again.
The future of Hurricane Karl is about the only certainty in the tropical forecasting business right now. Karl is accelerating toward the north in the central Atlantic and will pose no threat to the U. S. Southeast of Karl, however, Tropical Storm Lisa remains a true enigma. It's apparently getting wrapped into the circulation of a tropical low--which could itself become a depression--nipping at its heels, so it's hard to predict where it might go and how strong it could become. Suffice it to say, it's a long way from the Lesser Antilles and even farther from the U. S., so no point in worrying about it now. | 
