Monday, August 17, 2009

The first hurricane of this year's Atlantic hurricane season is named Bill, while the first named storm of the year to hit the mainland has made landfall on the Florida Panhandle.

Hurricane Bill's maximum sustained winds are near 75 mph. The National Hurricane Center expects Bill to get stronger and it could become a major hurricane by Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Claudette dumped heavy rains in some areas yesterday, even before it made landfall. But it was not expected to cause significant flooding or wind damage.

Tropical Storm Claudette has weakened to a tropical depression after coming ashore on the Florida Panhandle.

Forecasters said Claudette's top sustained winds weakened to near 35 mph Monday morning.

At 700 a.m. CDT, the center of Claudette was about 85 miles southwest of Montgomery, Ala. Claudette was moving northwest near 12 mph and was tracking to move across southwestern Alabama and into northeastern Mississippi late Monday.