T.S. Dean Expected to Strengthen

Tropical Storm Dean, currently well out in the Atlantic, is expected to "become a major hurricane as it approaches the Lesser Antilles by the weekend," according to Caribbean 360.com, which has become the go-to place for Caribbean news.

The weather service in Puerto Rico has said that Dean should become a hurricane by Saturday as it approaches the islands and it has urged interests "across the region" to monitor the evolution of the system.

For what little it's worth at this point, with the storm still about 2500 miles away, a few of the many computer forecast models currently foresee a substantial chance that it will strike somewhere along the Gulf Coast after passing Hispanola and Cuba. Oil prices are rising in anticipation of rig shut-downs, of course.

Locally, the storm can be expected to begin attracting serious attention by late this weekend if it survives that long.