Atlantic

The simple act of going for a walk becomes an adventure when the weather turns crisp and Mid-Atlantic trees change color. Check out these area hiking trails to get a breath of fresh air, to commune with nature and to get a glimpse of our region's rich history. Between the Atlantic marshes and the peaks of the Appalachian Trail, there are hikes suited to everyone from beginners to experienced campers. You can flee city life for the untamed wilds of West Virginia. You can take a walk into the past to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam.

It was about two weeks ago that a young Tropical Storm Nadine spun around near the Caribbean and East Coast, though the storm ended up circling back east toward the Azores. Here it goes again. The storm reformed as a tropical cyclone Sunday morning, having moved through the Azores and degenerating into a post-tropical cyclone. A post-tropical storm is a former tropical cyclone that still has heavy rains and high winds but no longer has tropical cyclone characteristics, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Tropical Storm Michael, the 13th named storm of the hurricane season, has formed in the Atlantic as of 11 a.m. Tuesday. The storm poses no threat to land at the moment. Tropical Storm Leslie, meanwhile, is struggling to Michael's west but could still become a hurricane that could affect Bermuda. Michael had 40 mph winds as of Tuesday morning, and was 1,200 miles southwest of the Azores, in the middle of the ocean. The storm is expected to move slowly northward but isn't much of a concern.

Isaac reached hurricane strength Tuesday afternoon and is poised to strike the Louisiana coast by tonight or early Wednesday -- find more on the storm's latest developments here . In the meantime, what could the storm mean for Maryland? It's too early to say. The storm's cone of probability calls for it to move through the Mississippi River valley late this week, and to turn eastward toward the Ohio Valley. That could mean rain for some parts of the country that desperately need it, but also flooding.

As weather watchers eye Tropical Storm Isaac in the southeastern Caribbean, what is likely to become Tropical Storm Joyce isn't far behind it in the Atlantic. We are still a few days away from an idea of where Isaac might impact the U.S., if at all. Meteorologists are debating whether the storm, currently expected to near south Florida by Monday morning, will track toward the Gulf of Mexico or up the East Coast. This is getting a lot of attention because of the Republican National Convention in Tampa next week.

When you become the most decorated Olympian of all time what do you do --  head to Disneyland? Not Michael Phelps. He's going to Atlantic City. Phelps will be headlining a pool party at Harrah's Resort on Sept. 22. And from the looks of photos of past "Pool After Dark" parties on the resort's website , these things can get pretty wild. You think you can handle hanging with the king of chlorine? Well, all you have to do is head over to the New Jersey boardwalk and pony up $20 -- that's what admission costs.

The "derecho" that blacked out much of Maryland several weeks ago," back-to-back tropical storms last summer and "snowmaggeddon" two winters ago weren't just fluke weather events, according to a new report by Environment Maryland .  They're part of a growing trend of extreme weather events that climate experts have predicted will come with the planet's gradual warming. Drawing on information from the National Climatic Data Center , the environmental group says heavy downpours and snowstorms in the region have increased in frequency 55 percent since 1948.  Where there used to be at least one heavy rain or snow every 12 months, on average, they're now hitting every 7.7 months, the group says.

Sylvester Paul "Butch" Bollinger, founder and CEO of Bollinger Energy Corp. who also was a volunteer at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, died Thursday of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care. The Canton resident was 68. The son of a roofing contractor and a homemaker, Mr. Bollinger was was one of 15 siblings. He was born in Baltimore and raised on Lake Avenue. After graduating from Loyola High School in 1962, he served in the Navy for four years. He served aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex during the Cuban missile crisis and later in Iceland as a firefighter in an emergency crash crew.

Sixty years ago this week, the world's attention was riveted on one man's dream as the liner United States, designed by William Francis Gibbs, steamed eastward across the Atlantic on its maiden voyage. Known as "The Big U," the liner sailed from New York's Ambrose Light to Bishop's Rock, off the English coast, the official Blue Riband course, in three days, 10 hours and 40 minutes, establishing a record that remains unbroken for a trans-Atlantic crossing. Gibbs, who was known during his lifetime as America's greatest naval designer, was consumed with the design and building of the United States, the fastest, most powerful and luxurious superliner ever built, which became his enduring legacy.

As of midday Friday, forecasters at the National Weather Service in Sterling, Va., were uncertain that the Baltimore area would see any thunderstorms at all later in the evening. Without a cold front or a low-pressure system in place, they lacked the markers that would guarantee violent weather. If a disturbance did occur, however, all the heat and humidity in the lower atmosphere would serve as fuel. "We knew that any thunderstorm that did develop could become severe," said Stephen Konarik, a meteorologist with the weather service.