Fast update on the tropics as there's a lot going on right now: Earl is still a category 4 storm as of the 8 AM advisory from NHC (145 mph). There are signs though that wind shear to the storm's north is starting to impact it. As the orientation of the storm becomes less vertical with time, drier air will get a chance to push in toward the center and Earl should begin a weakening trend as it approaches the latitude of the Carolinas. It will still be a powerful storm though and likely bring strong TS/category 1 wind to eastern North Carolina. The storm should brush just east of the Carolinas before heading toward Nantucket, MA (likely east of there too).
Tropical Storm Fiona continues to struggle to the southeast of Earl. It's a 50 mph tropical storm, and a very much smaller storm than Earl. It does look like the storm may get a chance to drift for a little while north of the Bahamas, but should generally get drawn out to sea along with Earl as it moves away from the Northeast coast.
Tropical Storm Gaston is in the central Atlantic now, located about 3000 miles away from SWFL. This storm is unlike Earl and Danielle in that it will have a strong ridge of high pressure to its north for the next several days. In the short term, it will battle with dry air to its west and strengthening may be slow over the next day or so but all of our models do bring this to hurricane intensity within 3-5 days. Gaston will likely still be east of the Windward Islands by next Tuesday and entering or near the Caribbean by mid week. Unlike Danielle and Earl, storms we could tell you very early in the game would pass east of Florida, we cannot do the same this far out with Gaston. As a result, you'll want to keep tabs on Gaston as we head deeper into the Labor Day weekend.
Brian
