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.

Earlier today following a US Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter reconnaissance flight into Hurricane Jimena off the southwestern tip of the Baja Peninsula, the National Hurricane Center in Miami, FL announced that Jimena was a strong category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Intensity Scale with winds at 155 mph.

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.