Tropical Storm Karen Remains on Cusp of Hurricane Strength

NOAA Tropical Storm Karen is not expected to gain much strength in the near future, but even a little would make it a hurricane, according to the National Hurricane Center. Still more than 1,100 miles east of the Windward Islands, the storm is not threatening land.

Around 5 p.m. (EDT), maximum sustained winds were clocked near 70 mph -- just shy of hurricane strength. The storm, in some ways, highlights the arbitrary nature of hurricane conventions. At this strength, it is virtually no different from a hurricane, but a couple more miles per hour of wind speed, and it would go in the books as a hurricane.

Sitting far off shore, it also would most likely never have been classified as a hurricane in decades past, before hurricane hunter airplanes visited storms for accurate eye-of-the-storm readings. Those aspects of modern hurricane forecasting and measurement highlight the difficulties scientists have had in uncovering the truth about how and if global warming affects hurricane strength.

The measurement of hurricanes past doesn't always compare easily with hurricanes present. National Hurricane Center

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