Bill Karins, Meteorologist

Well today's only the second day of my hurricane Vlogs and I'm back to text. I got a late afternoon call from Nightly News and they wanted a live update on the tropics so I couldn't record an In Depth Vlog. I'll be back on video but until then here's a quick bottom line on what I'm watching from now till wed afternoon.

Dean is still 3 days from any land and Flossie is only brushing the Hawaiian Islands so that leaves my attention on the system brewing in the Gulf. It's trying to get organized but it's running out of time. It has 24 to 36 hours to strengthen before it reaches South Texas. It will most likely be a weak Tropical Storm or Tropical Depression when it moves inland. The wind will not be an issue but the two-day rain event will cause some flooding. The only good news from this system is that it will end the heat wave from Houston to Dallas.

I will have a lot more on the days ahead on Dean. This is still a system with a lot of potential. The trend today has been to take the storm as a hurricane into the North Caribbean Sea. The key with forecast is the Dominican Republic with its tall mountains. These mountains can tear storms apart. Way to early to say who's at more risk East Coast or Gulf but with the Southern relocation this morning and a weaker East Coast trough this weekend I'm starting to lean more potential threat to the Gulf or Central America.

Lots of questions to be answered in the days ahead.

-BK