This pathetic, disorganized clump of clouds sitting a few hundred miles east of the Florida coast somehow managed to become Hurricane Bertha this morning, with a Hurricane Hunter aircraft confirming that it has a small area of 80 MPH winds extending about 25 miles away from its center.

Hurricane Iselle is churning towards the central Pacific this evening as a major category 3 hurricane with winds of 115 MPH. Its current forecast track brings it over the state of Hawaii later this week, possibly making landfall on Oahu this Friday as a moderate tropical storm.

The strongest wind and rain in Tropical Storm Bertha is spreading over Puerto Rico this afternoon as the poorly-organized storm moves off towards the northwest. Bertha currently has 50 MPH winds and is expected to slowly strengthen over the next few days as it heads away from the Caribbean.

Around this time every year, hurricane forecast maps pop up all over television and the internet — including on your favorite weather blog — but your friendly neighborhood weatherman rarely has enough time to explain the forecasts to you. Here's what those hurricane forecast maps mean.

The National Hurricane Center finally declared the low pressure system approaching the Caribbean as Tropical Storm Bertha. The newly-minted tropical system is the second of the year, and has sustained winds of 45 MPH as it heads towards the Lesser Antilles. It may pose a slight threat to the East Coast next week.

A swirling low pressure system in the Atlantic Ocean is approaching the Caribbean at this hour as it produces tropical storm force winds, but it's not considered a tropical storm. If it's producing strong enough winds, why won't forecasters call it a tropical storm?

A system in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean has a high chance of developing into a tropical cyclone over the next few days as it moves west towards the Caribbean. If it develops into a tropical storm, its name will be Bertha.

Super Typhoon Neoguri is churning towards the southern islands of Japan this evening with the power equivalent to that of a category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic Ocean. Forecasters expect that Neoguri could have winds of 165 MPH when it comes dangerously close to Okinawa on Tuesday.

Hurricane Arthur is creeping closer to the North Carolina coast at this hour, with winds of more than 90 MPH hanging just a few dozen miles offshore. The system is expected to strengthen to category 2 status with 105 MPH winds over the next day as it pounds the Outer Banks.

Tropical Storm Arthur is on the verge of becoming a hurricane at this hour, with winds of 70 MPH. Hurricane warnings are now in effect for coastal North Carolina from Surf City, N.C. northward to Duck, N.C. Tropical storm warnings are in effect for coastal areas from South Santee River, S.C. to Surf City, N.C. and from Duck, N.C. to Cape Charles Light, Virginia.

Hurricane watches and tropical storm warnings are in effect as Tropical Storm Arthur continues to gather organization and strength as it swirls towards the Carolina coast. Meteorologists expect it Arthur hit coastal North Carolina as a hurricane with winds around 80 MPH on Thursday night.

The first tropical storm of the Atlantic hurricane season formed off the Florida coast last night, and the system is going to skim the east coast of the United States before heading out to sea next weekend. Even though the worst weather will affect mostly the Outer Banks, it could still have a dangerous impact on the beaches this holiday weekend.

Here's the 2PM advisory on Tropical Storm Arthur. The National Hurricane Center expects the system to turn into category 1 hurricane with 80 MPH winds when it hits North Carolina's Outer Banks on Friday. High winds, high surf, 3-5 inches of rain, and a minor storm surge are the main hazards.

After days of the storm flirting with death or development, the National Hurricane Center pulled the trigger and started issuing advisories on newly-formed Tropical Depression One off the Florida coast. The year's first tropical cyclone in the Atlantic will approach the coastal Carolinas later this week with winds approaching hurricane force.

It's a simple message, and it comes from the heart: if you live in the southeastern United States, prepare a potential hit by Tropical Storm or even Hurricane Arthur later this week. Given the amount of tourists on Carolina beaches for the holiday weekend, it's probably the worst time of the year for a storm to threaten.

Right on schedule, the Atlantic hurricane season looks like it may produce the year's first tropical system off the southeastern coast of the United States this week. The National Hurricane Center gives the system a high 60% chance of developing over the next five days.

If you live on the coast and heard that a hurricane was barreling towards you, would you take it more seriously if it were named Hurricane Douglas or Hurricane Dolly? A recent study suggests that people take storms with female names less seriously than those with male names, and die as a result.

Welcome to meteorological summer. For the next three months, we're going to sweat, run for our lives, and anxiously wait for student loan debt to kick in. It's already off to a rocky start, with a 20% chance of tropical development in the Gulf of Mexico this week and a severe weather outbreak in the midwest.

There's more than meets the eye when it comes to the politics of hurricanes. Two names were so controversial in 2001 that they caused an uproar and were immediately removed from the list. Another infamous storm nearly caused a brawl among meteorologists.