A stall or slowdown from Maria was a concern as far back as last weekend as the models consistently had the quasi banana ridge to the north fairly well established above 500mb's. Sure there was a path in the lower levels but even then it just didn't make sense that Maria was going to shoot right up there and go OTS the way the models were forecasting 4 or 5 days ago There just wasn't anything in the runs that pointed to strong steering. Speaking of which, I have been amazed at the lack of steering in the Atlantic and the east Pacific the last month or so. Nearly every storm in both basins has slowed to a crawl or stalled in the last few weeks. With the persistent trof (and crazy cool weather in the Midwest) in the eastern conus this summer I really wasn't expecting anything to get close to land from the Atlantic as we approached peak season (bingo the pattern flips as if on cue lol). If that pattern starts to re-assert itself and the weakness trends back to around 85W the way it's been this summer, the west coast of Florida and the NE Gulf could be in for an October surprise. Just my :weenie: opinion, now back to Umphrey's