Today was a very exciting day for Hurricane Bill as the Category 2 hurricane developed a well pronounced eye and exhibited great symmetrical structure with low-level spiral banding and upper-level outflow channels giving Hurricane Bill a nice buzz saw appearance.

This morning the National Hurricane Center made a very expected announcement – Bill became the first hurricane of the 2009 Atlantic Hurricane Season.

The National Hurricane Center is issuing advisories on Tropical Storm Ana which is located about 710 miles east-southeast of the Leeward Islands. And, on Tropical Storm Bill which is located about 905 miles west-southwest of the Cape Verde Islands.

The Atlantic Basin is alive! The National Hurricane Center named Tropical Storm Bill in their afternoon update.

The National Hurricane Center has had some fun with Invest99l, which became Tropical Depression Two, which was then downgraded to an Invest after a few days, and then upgraded back to Tropical Depression Two and then just this morning upgraded to the first named storm in the Atlantic Basin for the 2009 Hurricane Season – Tropical Storm Ana.

The Atlantic Basin might actually be coming alive – maybe. A low pressure area associated with a tropical wave just off the western coastline of Africa is organizing near the Cape Verde Islands. The system is moving to the west at 10-15 mph and the National Hurricane Center has given it a 30 percent chance of becoming a tropical depression within the next 48-hours.

Scientists at The Florida State University’s Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies (COAPS) have developed a new computer model that they hope will predict with unprecedented accuracy how many hurricanes will occur in a given season.

NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center (CPC) released thier latest ENSO Discussion today. The synopsis is El Niño is expected to strengthen and last through the Northern Hemisphere Winter 2009-2010.

How to be a Storm Chaser? It’s one of the most popular questions that I receive from readers, so I’m creating this multi-part series to help the newcomer who is interested in Storm Chasing.

Canadian meteorologist say that gave as much warning as possible about a severe wind event that collasped a stage at the Big Valley Jamboree in Camrose. A severe weather warning was issued for the area at 6:04 p.m., several minutes after the stage collasped at around 5:57 p.m.

Finally, there is a tiny little piece of action happening in the Atlantic Basin this very quiet hurricane season. Here is the gist of it from the National Hurricane Center: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/gtwo_atl.shtml

If you woke this morning in east Oklahoma and were lucky enough to see the sunrise, you had a great treat to relax to while enjoying your morning coffee!

Last month USA Today reported that Five U.S. Patent and Trade Office patent applications, made public on July 9, propose slowing hurricanes by pumping cold, deep-ocean water in their paths from barges. If issued, the patents offer 18 years of legal rights to the idea for Gates and co-inventors, including climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

I recently read Storm Chaser and respected tornado scientist Dr. Chuck Doswell’s latest essay titled – “An Incident Leading to an Implication of Unfullfilled Promises,” which as Chuck’s essays usually do made me do a lot of thinking. The gist of the essay refers to the fact that on June 12th, 2009 at 10:23 PM CDT a tornado formed in the “heart of meteorology” (Norman, Oklahoma) and it ended about 10:38 PM.

Dr. Rick Toracinta was my chase partner on several great storm chasing occasions and I was extremely fortunate to befriend him. Rick was a rising star in his research field of Polar Meteorology at the Byrd Polar Research Center, The Ohio State University.