Maria stubbornly refuses to become a truly extratropical cyclone, and is still clinging onto hurricane status. At 21Z, the storm was located at 39.5N 46.8W and moving NE at 10kts... this is uncharacteristically slow for such a high latitude!! Satellite-estimated intensity is 65kts and 982mb. Although it will remain a powerful cyclone, the next 1-2 days will see the full transition from tropical to extratropical. Nate has changed very little in the past 24 hours, but has passed to the south of Bermuda and is now safely out of their way. It remains a CAT1 hurricane with sustained winds of 75kts and a central pressure of 982mb. As of 21Z, it's at 31.8N 62.0W and tracking NE at 14kts. Ophelia, sitting at exactly the same spot it was 24 hours ago, was recently upgraded to a hurricane, the seventh of the season. It is intensifying just dozens of miles east of Cape Canaveral, and shows no signs of moving soon. However, with the warm Gulf Stream flowing underneath it, a constant supply of energy is available. The latest intensity is 65kts and 985mb. You can track it easily from Melbourne's radar at http://www.srh.noaa.gov/radar/latest/DS.p19r0/si.kmlb.shtml. In the near term, it is expected to gradually drift toward the NE, but the US coast should not let it's guard down... several models project that it could loop back around and hit the coast. The season's NTC is climbing rapidly now, and stands at an impressive 140%, high for any year, but it's only September 8! In fact, going back to 1900, only 16 years have had higher NTCs for the entire season, so it will be interesting to see how many of those will be surpassed by the end of the 2005 season.
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