What Is A Sabbatical?

While the likely origins appear to be related to the word Sabbath, in recent times the term has become synonymous with the concept of an extended break.  It has been a concept used in academia for some time and is often associated with professors who will take an extended leave from their normal faculty position.  However, it [...]

When Is A Tropical Cyclone A Tropical Cyclone?

Seems logical enough doesn’t it, a tropical cyclone is a tropical cyclone. Reality is a tropical cyclone is a tropical cyclone only when ‘someone’ decides it is a tropical cyclone. You are probably thinking so what, no real big difference there, but in a science primarily governed mathematical equations and the laws of physics and [...]

Does Size Matter?

By Angela Fritz When you want to determine how intense or how strong a hurricane season was, there are many ways you can calculate it.  An obvious place to start would be summing the intensity of the individual tropical cyclones in that season.  When a cyclone is defined as a tropical storm or a hurricane [...]

Who Has It Right Regarding Tropical Cyclones?

Since our last post about seasonal prediction of tropical cyclones, one of the organizations (the UK Meteorology Office) mentioned in that post has come out with their official forecast.  The UK Meteorology Office, or simply Met Office, has made a prediction that is substantially different than the other forecasts to date.  Traditionally the Met Office [...]