Tropical Depression 7 has been upgraded to a full-fledged tropical storm, the fifth of the season, dubbed Earl.
Earl is a minimal storm, with top sustained winds of 40 mph. It is moving west at 16 mph, and is now about 500 miles west of the Cape Verde Islands. Strengthening is expected to continue, with Earl likely to become a Cat. 1 hurricane by Friday.
Forecasters still expect this storm, like Danielle, will pass north of the Lesser Antilles.
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Here is the latest advisory on Earl. Here is the forecast storm track. And here is the view from space.