Tropical Storm Beta, the record 23rd tropical system to be named, was designated early this morning! According to the NHC and current model guidance, the system is forecast to become a hurricane before it makes landfall along the Nicaraguan coast. Check out the latest forecasts at the NHC. Latest GFDL runs forecast a minimum pressure at 960.5mb and Cat-3 winds by 6z (1:00am CDT) Saturday: FSU-GFDL.

Other model data can be accessed at the FSU Tropical Model page.

I'm sitting here at work today, with once again, not much happening. So, yes it's another slow, boring day. The short-term MN/WI/IA unified forecast should take me a total of 10 minutes to do today! Anyhow, I'm working the 7am-3pm shift today, so I'll write more once I get home. I'm much more rested up today (yesterday I sat through my shift with only 2 hrs sleep) so I should have more motivation to get online this afternoon/evening.

More later...

(Edited at 12:30pm) - Thanks to Brendan Loy for pointing out my mistake!