Katia could become a Cat 3 hurricane, but still too soon to worry

Hurricane Irene is a horrid memory, and Katia — which could blow up into a major storm — is just too far away to know whether it will again have us thinking about the dangers of Zone A.

The slightly weakened tropical storm is now at the edge of the Caribbean Sea, and far away from land.

The National Hurricane Center expects that it eventually will become a Category 3, but it’s way too soon to say whether it will set its sights on the East Coast or remain out at sea.

Of more immediate concern for the U.S. is a tropical depression in the Gulf of Mexico that will possibly wallop New Orleans this weekend, but it shouldn’t become a major storm.

That storm is likely to be called Lee, unless a potential tropical system north of the Bermuda develops first. The loser in this race will be called Maria.