A tornado has been reported and has damaged several buildings just north of downtown Minneapolis. At 2:11 local National Weather Service meteorologist say the tornado was reported by the public and has been confirmed.

While the Atlantic Hurricane Season is in full swing, a strong system is moving through the plains and into the Ohio Valley. The Storm Predication Center has issued a Tornado Watch for extreme southeast Iowa, west central and northwest Illinois, and extreme northwest Missouri.

Hurricane Bill continues to intensify as it reached Category 4 strength on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Intensity Scale earlier today. The forecast track has changed little and Bill is still expected to move between Bermuda and the United States while remaining at sea. Even though the hurricane is expected to remain at sea, interest along the East Coast should monitor Bill’s progress, as well as should Bermuda.

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.

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.