TROPICAL LINGO
With the recent tropical system in the Gulf of Mexico, there were 3 different identifiers used to report on this system. We first knew it as Invest 92L . Later it was known as Potential Tropical Cyclone #3 . Then just as it was making landfall it became Tropical Storm Claudette . What do these titles mean, and how many more are there? Tropical depression, tropical storm, hurricane....those are the terms we are most familiar with concerning weather in the tropics. But what are all of these other terms you hear being mentioned from time to time? Most tropical systems form from what are called Tropical Waves . There are systems that form from old frontal boundaries that get out over the water and start to spin up, but for the most part, a tropical wave is where it all starts. About 60% of named storms come from tropical waves, and 85% of major hurricanes form from a tropical wave. These waves are basically troughs of low pressure that, of course, form in the tropics, mostly coming off the...