Dear Tom,
Do hurricanes form in the South Atlantic? It seems that we only hear about storms in
the North Atlantic. What about storms in the Indian and Pacific oceans?
Rebecca Jeffery
Dear Rebecca,
We never hear about hurricanes in the South Atlantic because, with only one
documented exception, they just do not occur there. Cool ocean currents, strong winds
aloft and a lack of trade wind convergence all combine to provide an inhospitable
environment for tropical cyclone formation. The meteorological community was truly
surprised when unprecedented hurricane dubbed "Catarina" struck coastal Brazil on
March 28, 2004.
Numerous tropical cyclones roam both the northern and southern portions of the
Pacific and Indian oceans each year. Earlier this year a devastating storm known as
Cyclone Nargis struck Myanmar in early May, with the death toll estimated as high as
150,000.
