Storms and Floods

Tropical Storms

In the Atlantic:

Subtropical storm Melissa is located about 725 mi. (1165 km) E of Bermuda. Melissa, the 13th Atlantic named storm of 2013, is slowly transitioning to a tropical storm as it heads north over the Central North Atlantic, far from land. Ocean temperatures are near 25°C, which is barely warm enough to support a tropical storm, but wind shear is a moderate 10 - 20 knots, which may allow Melissa to become fully tropical by Wednesday morning. Conditions should cause Melissa to rapidly deteriorate on Wednesday. Satellite loops show that Melissa has a large circulation, but only limited heavy thunderstorm activity near the centre. Melissa will not be a threat to any land areas.

In the North India Ocean :

Tropical cyclone 04b is located approximately 240 nm east-northeast Chennai, India. The fourth tropical cyclone of the Northern Indian Ocean season has formed and is headed for landfall in India. Tropical storm Four is forecast to strike India at about 06:00 GMT on Thursday, November 21.

Tornadoes Plough Through Illinois, Indiana

at least 14 tornadoes struck Illinois and northwest Indiana on Sunday, as Gov. Pat Quinn declared six more counties as state disaster areas, including Will.

The weather service determined that three EF-2 tornadoes, packing winds of 111 to 135 mph, hit Coal City, Diamond, Manhattan and Frankfort. The hardest hit was Coal City and Diamond, where top winds were estimated at 122 mph.

Four weaker EF-0 and EF-1 tornadoes, with winds topping at 110 mph, struck areas from southeast Iroquois County to near Rensselaer, Ind.

The strongest of the tornadoes to hit Illinois slammed into the town of Washington near Peoria, where one person was killed, 120 others injured and as many as 500 homes damaged. The tornado was rated an EF-4, one shy of the strongest on the charts, with winds of 190 mph and a path of destruction that stretched for more than 46 miles through Tazewell and Woodford counties, according to the weather service.

Two other tornadoes were reported in central Illinois.

NewsBytes:

The worst snowstorm in 50 years has hit Harbin, capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province for 60 hours claiming the lives of at least four people.