buxfan4life;1755849; said:
I don't think so. Strongest it will be is maybe a Cat 3, but no way it reaches Cat 5. Also, not sure what tracks you are watching, but that big High pressure system sitting over the middle of the Atlantic is going to steer most TD/Storms away from the coast. Maybe the outer-bands of rain will reach the east coast, but I don't see a landfall with this one.
This is what I'm going off of....this is the CIMSS steering graphic.
the problem is the gap left by Danielle has not filled in sufficiently, so Earl's track is somewhat up in the air. Essentially it's in an area of weak steering currents as highlighted by the graphic above.
There are two scenarios at play here, if the High, currently centered over the eastern United States, becomes elongated SW to NE, then Earl will likely go NW to NNW and miss the US coast.
However, if the High flattens out and/or doesn't become elongated, Earl will track more to the West.
The models and projected tracks keep trending west ever so slightly. That's not to say it won't eventually adjust East, but it's certainly not IMPOSSIBLE that the US could see a strike out of this one.
As for the intensity, right now NHC is forecasting 145MPH winds. The threshold for Cat 5 is 156. That's not a big jump, especially with a low shear environment and 90 degree water. We'll see what happens but this storm will be a Cat 4 by 11PM tonight.