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Tropical Storm Terms
The next time a storm occurs, you'll know exactly what all those terms mean.
Tropical Weather Terms
- Convection: Atmospheric motions that are predominantly vertical, resulting in the transport of properties such as heat and moisture. Cumulus clouds and thunderstorms are examples of phenomena associated with convection.
- Eye: The usually relatively calm center of a hurricane where winds are light and skies can appear partly cloudy to clear. The average eye diameter is about 20 miles, though it can range from 5 to 60 miles.
- Eye Wall: The organized band of intense convection immediately surrounding the eye of a tropical cyclone. The strongest winds of a hurricane are found in the eye wall.
- Hurricane: A warm-core tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained surface winds are 74 mph or greater (64 knots or greater).
- Hurricane Hunters: A reserve group of the US Air Force that flies reconnaissance flights into tropical disturbances, tropical storms and hurricanes to gather data which aids in tracking and forecasting tropical weather systems.
- National Hurricane Center: Located at Florida International University in Miami. The center is responsible for tracking and forecasting tropical weather and issuing watches and warnings for threatening tropical conditions.
- Storm Surge: Increase in sea level water height from what would exist with no hurricane. Most hurricne deaths are associated with storm surge. Typically, the stronger the hurricane, the greater the storm surge.
- Tropical Cyclone: A warm-core low pressure system which develops over tropical and sometimes sub-tropical waters and has an organized circulation.
- Tropical Depression: A tropical cyclone in which maximum sustained surface winds are 38 mph (33 knots) or less. Tropical Depressions characteristically have one or more closed isobars.
- Tropical Disturbance: A discrete system of organized convection that originates in the tropics and maintains its identity for 24 hours or more.
- Tropical Storm: A warm-core tropical cyclone in which the maximum sustained winds range from 39 to 73 mph (34 to 63 knots).
- Tropical Wave (Easterly Wave): A low pressure trough moving generally westward in the tropical easterlies.
Watches
- Tropical Storm Watch: Issued when tropical strom conditions, including winds of 39 to 73 mph, pose a possible threat to a specified coastal area generally within 36 hours.
- Hurricane Watch: Issued for a specified coastal area for which a hurricane or an incipient hurricane condition is a possible threat generally within 36 hours.
Warnings
- Tropical Storm Warning: Issued when tropical storm conditions, including winds of 39 to 73 mph, are expected in a specified coastal area, generally within 24 hours.
- Hurricane Warning: Issued when sustained winds of 74 mph or greater caused by a hurricane, are expected in a specified coastal area generally within 24 hours.
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