Igor: On the prowl?

Igor's top winds are about 150 m.p.h., and although it looks like it won't quite make it to Category 5 status, it is forecast to hold onto its current strength for the next 48 years.

That is looking as certain as the inevitability that the terms Igor and monster will be inseparable for the next several days.Far less certain is what land masses, if any, Igor will torment and whether the hurricane repellent protecting the U.S. East Coast so far this season will break down.

The National Hurricane Center's official track forecast takes it near Bermuda during the weekend. But right now the hurricane center is saying it doesn't have a whole lot of confidence in that forecast.

Igor is expected to remain in a fertile hurricane enviroment and then weaken later in the week as it encounters some shear. Should it take a significantly different path, however, it might retain its strength longer -- and possibly become more of an East Coast threat.

At last report, Igor was moving ponderously over the open ocean due west just over 10 m.p.h., with a west-northwest jog expected tonight and a more northwesterly turn Wednesday.

Here are a few tidbits worth noting: Its track this morning was a tad farther south than the had been forecast, the hurricane center said, and the European computer models see high pressure over the North Atlantic nudging Igor more to the south and west.

So far, the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts have had a remarkably benign season. Right now, that trend looks to continue with Igor, but that could change later in the week.

Here is the most-recent hurricane center discussion, and an Igor update by Alex Sosnowski at Accu-Weather.