Hurricane Jimena formed in the Pacific Ocean on Saturday south of Mexico, said the US National Hurricane Center. Meanwhile, Danny weakened to a tropical depression as it continued to slowly progress to the north-northeast off the US east coast.

As of 5pm ET, Jimena was located about 270 miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico, and was moving west-northwest at about 12mph. The storm has maximum sustained winds of 105mph, and is now a category 2 hurricane. Forecasters say that it may strengthen to a "major" hurricane by Sunday.

A tropical depression in the eastern Pacific has strengthened and became Tropical Storm Kevin. At 5pm ET, the system was about 1,065 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. It has maximum sustained winds of about 45mph, and was moving to the west-northwest at 5mph.

Forecasters have closely been watching a tropical depression which has now gained strength and turned into Tropical Storm Danny, The storm has formed off the coast of the Bahamas, and is likely to get stronger as it continues to head towards the U.S.

So far, the storm has maximum sustained winds of 45mph, and is moving west-northwest at 18mph. At 11am Wednesday morning, the center of the storm was located about 445 miles east of Nassau, Bahamas, and 775 miles south of Cape Hatteras, NC.

Forecasts currently show that the storm is on a path to clip the East Coast of the US over the coming weekend. Those in the Bahamas and the southeastern US are advised to monitor the storm.

Meanwhile, out in the Pacific, Tropical Storm Ignacio has weakened as it moves northwest with top winds at 45mph.

This morning Hurricane Bill became a dangerous Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds near 135mph, and forecasters now say that it could get even stronger as it moves over the open Atlantic. As of early Wednesday, Bill was located about 460 miles east of the Leeward Islands and was moving west-northwest near 16mph.

The National Hurricane Center has advised residents of the Leeward Islands to monitor the storm's progress, even though the core of the storm is expected to pass well to the northeast of the islands sometime either late Wednesday or early Thursday.

Bill's biggest threat could be to Bermuda, which the storm may pass in three or four days. However, it could also slide directly between Bermuda and the eastern coast of the U.S. without making landfall.

Over the next few days, those along the coast can at least expect wave swells and rip currents.

While the first tropical storm of the season began to lash the coast of Florida on Saturday evening, the first hurricane of the season likely to hit U.S. shores began forming hundreds of m

iles out to sea. Tropical Storm Claudette appeared on the radar early Saturday, and by evening had already added to its strength, bringing heavy rains and high winds to the Florida Panhandle. But brewing in the warm and open Atlantic Ocean was another threat, where Tropical Storm Bill began gathering force.

Tropical Storm Bill has been gathering force and may head for the East Coast as a major Category 3 storm by next weekend. According to the National Hurricane Center, Bill may even strengthen to a hurricane to a hurricane, with winds over 74mph, by today.

Bill looked to be heading towards south Florida, but forecasters said it was impossible to predict whether it would change course or lose force in the coming days. Some storm watchers have even predicted that Bill may bring with it 100mph-plus winds as it bears down on the Leeward Islands by the end of the week, and reaches the U.S. coast by the weekend.

For the second day in a row, NASA has been forced to delay the scheduled landing of the space shuttle Atlantic. Thunderstorms have prevented the shuttle from returning to its home base on Saturday, keeping the astronauts circling Earth after a successful repair job at the Hubble Space Telescope.

Offshore storms were what prompted the space agency to skip both morning landing attempts at the Kennedy Space Center. Sunday's forecast isn't looking too good either, but NASA is still opting to wait out the bad weather instead of taking a detour to California.

The Atlantis crew are hoping to soon wrap up their Hubble repair mission, which started on May 11. It was NASA's last visit to the now 19-year-old space observatory, and the $1 billion overhaul and repairs are expected to keep the telescope working for a good five to ten years.

The shuttle's backup landing site, Edwards Air Force Base in California, is expected to have good weather all weekend. However, NASA is holding off on using the backup landing site as it takes quite a bit of time and money - about $2 million - to have a shuttle ferried across the country.

A study spanning sixty years has shown that overnight temperatures in Ohio have gradually risen, and experts are left wondering what it means. Ohio State University researcher Jeffrey Rogers is now looking into whether the warmer Ohio nights may be a sign of global warming.

Rogers figures indicate that the difference between average summer nighttime low and average nighttime high temperatures in Cleveland is 1.5 degrees. In Columbus the difference is much greater, with nighttime temperatures having increased by 3 degrees. Day time temperatures have remained largely constant.

What Rogers and his fellow researchers currently believe is that increasing clouds and humidity are making heat retention more likely, thus the higher nighttime temps. This theory falls in line with other global studies, says the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

According to my car's temperature reading, it was as cold as -12°F this morning. Factoring in the 10 to 12mph winds we have blowing across Northeast Ohio this morning, and temperatures easily feel as if it's at least -25°F. In extreme cold such as this, it is important take take several precautions to protect not only yourself and your loved ones, but also your pets and home.

The number one tip for cold weather is to limit your outdoor activity, and cover any exposed skin when you do have to venture out in the cold. At the temperatures forecast, frostbite can occur in just a few minutes. Keep warm by dressing in layers and try to stay dry. Now is not a good time to go sledding, as tempting as the nicely packed snow may be. Avoid prolonged exposure to the cold, hypothermia can easily set in.

If you have pets, make sure they stay indoors. If they must be left outdoors, make sure they have shelter, extra food, and water. Pets burn more calories trying to stay warm, and dehydration can be a serious problem in the winter.

Fire officials in California said that winds of "near hurricane force" have now grounded some of their water dropping aircraft, as firefighters in northern Los Angeles continue to battle a wildfire that has already forced thousands to evacuate and that has burned 10 homes.

The California Highway Patrol shut down a section of Interstate 5 near Sylmar early Saturday as flames spread west towards the freeway, marking the second freeway closing recently due to the fire.

5,000 residents in the area have been evacuated since the fire began late Friday. More evacuations are under way, and patients at one hospital were evacuated when the fire knocked out power.

A separate fire is also blazing through the Santa Barbara area community of Montecito, which began on Thursday 100 miles northwest of LA, and has since forced the evacuation of 5,400 homes. At least 100 homes have been gutted by the blaze. There have been no reported fatalities, however, 13 have been injured, three of which are suffering from burns and 10 suffering from smoke inhalation.

It snowed in Chardon, Ohio yesterday, the heart of the snowbelt, and who can forget the scenes of Pennsylvanians digging out their drives after their first big snow fall of the year yesterday? Well today it was Cleveland's turn to get their first taste of the fluffy white stuff, with some local residents waking up to a coating of fresh white snow on their cars. Closer to the lake and in the city of Cleveland, snowflakes have been spotted falling through the crisp fall air.

Are we in for an early winter? Will we get socked with snow this year? According to the Old Farmer's Almanac, Cleveland falls in the region known as the "Lower Great Lakes", which spans west from Milwaukee, WI and Chicago, IL to Syracuse, NY in the east, and also includes Indianapolis, IN to the south and Detroit, MI to the north. Their prediction for this winter for the Lower Great Lakes region is as follows:

As Hurricane Ike battered the gulf coast last month, it slowly made its way up north and into Ohio, where it existed mostly as a very bad windstorm. With gusts more than 70mph, near hurricane strength, the storm caused more than $550 million in insured losses in Ohio.

According to an Ohio Insurance Institute study, such a loss is the highest damage total for any storm in the state since the Xenia tornado outbreak in 1974.

The group surveyed 24 Ohio property and casualty companies, which reported 121,624 claims to have been received from the storm, which knocked down trees and cut out electricity for hundreds of thousands of residents and businesses throughout the state.

The $553.1 million loss figure, however, may not be entirely accurate and is likely higher. It includes data from insurers that represent 68% of the auto insurance market, 72% of the homeowners insurance market, and 1/3 of commercial lines. They are planning a followup study in six to nine months to collect additional data.

The Xenia tornados of 1974 caused $600 million in damages, which in today's figures would be about $1 billion. Other more recently costly storms in Ohio was the 2006 hail and windstorm in Central Ohio that produced $239.6 million in damages and 45,000 claims.