Holy smokes....look at this

[wxman57]

Neither link would let me in. Or maybe it is my Browser.

They're both "https://" (secure socket) links, requiring your browser to accept a certificate. It is your browser settings preventing you from viewing the web site with the images.

I put the two images elsewhere. Here's the Gulf SST map. Note the warm water by the Yucatan associated with the loop current. But, really, the SSTs aren't that far above normal:

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/gulftemps.gif

Here's the SST anomaly map:
http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/sstmap.gif

But, as has been mentioned, SSTs can only impact potential intensity in a shear-free environment. Right now, anything moving into the Gulf would be ripped to shreads by shear.

[frederic79]

I don't know how accurate they are, but TWC has a Gulf/Atlantic SST maps updated daily. I kept last year's for June 7 (2005) and today is June 6th. When comparing the two, overall the Gulf looks remarkably similar to last year but with more warm water near the Florida panhandle and less near Texas. The Carribean 84-85 F water doesn't extend as far east into the Atlantic as last year. But otherwise, all very similar to last year for this time of year, according to TWC.