By Lisa Zahner | Last updated at 2:15 p.m. SaturdayTROPICS — At last, Hurricane Bill has made the predicted turn to the north and has been downgraded to a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 100 mph and gusts up to 120 mph.Residents all along the Eastern Seaboard of the United States are breathing a collective sigh of relief as Bill is forecast to stay clear of the U.S. mainland, but to possibly impact Nova Scotia on Sunday afternoon as a much-weakened Category 1 storm. Many cities have closed their beaches in anticipation of heavy surf and dangerous rip currents from Bill.At the 2 p.m. advisory, Bill was located 370 miles south of Nantucket, where Tropical Storm warnings have been posted. As of Friday, Bill has safely passed the latitude of Vero Beach on its way north. The National Hurricane Center was monitoring a new tropical wave off the coast of Africa, but between the 8 a.m. and 2 p.m. advisories, the wave has dissipated and is not expected to form into a tropical cyclone.There is no other tropical activity in the North Atlantic at this time.
