Tropical Storm Fred strengthened into a hurricane over the east Atlantic Tuesday. The National Hurricane Center’s track forecast will quickly push Fred to the north allowing the hurricane to steer clear of any land.

Jimena is likely to wreck havoc on the southern Baja Peninsula in the coming days and it is a possibility that Jimena could be a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale when it does make landfall – a scary situation if you happen to live in that part of Mexico.

The life and times of Hurricane Bill are about to come to an end as Bill starts his final track into the North Atlantic. And, with cooler waters ahead, it’s a matter of hours before Bill starts to gradually decrease in strength and become extratropical.

Hurricane forecasting models indeed seem to be handling the long-term forecast tracks of tropical systems, including major hurricanes quite well this season. There has been very little change to Bill’s forecast track over the past few days.

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.

When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast in 2005 the world watched in shock and amazement as local, state and federal officials were heavily criticized for not responding in a timely manner to the initial response, or the aid that would follow in the months and years to come.