Powerful Rita Bound for Gulf

Powerful Rita, nearly a hurricane early this afternoon, seems destined for the Gulf. On the way she'll hit Key West and may give our old friend the Dry Tortugas (who just reopened) a visit. After that, hard to say, but current predictions bring her into Texas.

Right now you can see Tropical Storm Rita on the Bahamas Radar or the South Florida radar. The storm is depicted well on our South Florida satellite. Don't rely on me to tell you the latest -- just check the AccuWeather.com home page or Hurricane Center.

She's a ways off yet but as Carl points out, it's time to start thinking about which webcams in Key West we'll observe.

I should also point out what Carl already did, which is that our own Hurricane Expert Joe Bastardi predicted this:

Interestingly, J.B. had predicted 7 named storms between Aug. 20 and Sep. 20. Should Rita get named in the next two days, he will have hit 7.

A small portion of J.B.'s column is available for free for the rest of season. To get the full column, you'll need to sign up for a 30-day trial of AccuWeather.com Professional.