Well I have left probably the best known basin to last, the Atlantic basin and the Atlantic Hurricane season. Most of the tropical storms and hurricanes develop between July and the end of Novemeber with a climatological peak occuring in September. In this basin, 11-12 storms of tropical storm strength and greater occur per season on average with 6 being hurricanes. Unlike with the NE pacific basin where most form in a similar area, Atlantic Hurricanes can originate anywhere within the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and the Atlantic all the way to the Cape Verde Islands near the west coast of Africa. Steering for these systems generally follow a subtropical ridge to the west until the point this ridge is weakened by a trough system and the systems curve poleward. It is the point at which this curve occurs which determines whether or not a land impact will occur (this is showen well in the plot of tracks below). Many recurve before affecting the continental US, however many impact on the US and Mexico. Many well known events have occured in this region with Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Andrew being 2 of many standouts. Images from Wikipedia showing tracks from 1980-2005 and mean tracks for hurricanes in September.
Posted on: Sun, 27 Apr 2014 23:57:39 +0000
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