An upper level low is producing widespread -- but disorganized -- showers & thunderstorms from near the Lesser Antilles hundreds of miles northeast into the Atlantic. No development is likely. Quite a bit of convection also extends along an axis between S. America & Africa but few signs of any surface low.

The NHC has compiled a great 4.5 min. animation of the 2011 hurricane season -- click here. The Center has also released a written synopsis -- click here -- of the '11 hurricane season with an emphasis on "Irene", the first hurricane to make a U.S. landfall in 3 years. Given the very active season (19 named storms), the U.S. still was relatively lucky though tropical storm "Lee" was also a destructive storm with flooding & tornadoes with the Northeast especially hard hit.
