The tropics have really become active here in the last few days. Earlier this week we had the 2nd Hurricane of the season form in Hurricane Danielle, and as of the 5Pm advisory from the National Hurricane Center, Tropical Storm Earl has formed. Earl is the 5th named storm of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season. Tropical Srrom Earl is packing winds of 40 miles per hour, and is headed in almost a due west direction at 16 miles per hour. As of 5Pm EST, Earl was located at 14.4°N 32.2°W.

The projected path that the National Hurricane Center thinks the tropical storm will take is one that is generally westward for the next 72 hours, and then bending slightly more to the WNW thereafter. They have Earl just North of the Leeward Islands by next Monday. They do predict that Earl will reach hurricane status sometime this coming weekend. Remember though that this far out, predictions are extremely inaccurate. Will Earl affect the United States at all, unlike Danielle? Right now it looks like it could be a possibility, however many computer models seem to think it will also curve north before striking the US.