ORLANDO, Fla. – The National Hurricane Center has designated an altered climate zone in the Gulf of Mexico as a potential tropical cyclone 1.
This low-pressure disorganized area is expected to bring heavy rainfall and tropical storm conditions to parts of Florida from Friday to Saturday.
The National Hurricane Center has issued a tropical storm watch for Osceola and Brevard counties, meaning tropical storm conditions are expected in the next 48 hours.
Most of the impacts will occur in South Florida, but from Friday evening there will be heavy rain and strong winds in Central Florida, especially in South Orlando.
What is a potential tropical cyclone?
The “potential tropical cyclone” is a relatively new designation for the National Hurricane Center. It was created in 2017 to identify areas of altered climate close to the earth that have the potential to take on tropical characteristics.
This designation allows the National Hurricane Center to create its forecasts and issue clocks and warnings, although the storm has not yet fully developed, but is likely to enter and affect the earth in no time.
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The main feature of a tropical cyclone; depression, storm, or hurricane is a well-defined center on the surface. Although the disturbance is producing winds that meet the criteria of a depression or storm, it will not be considered tropical and will receive its name (formerly tropical storm) unless it has this closed circulation on the surface.
I thought the cyclones were in another part of the world
That’s true, but cyclones occur all over the world. All storms are cyclones. In the northern hemisphere, winds spiral inward and counterclockwise. In the southern hemisphere the opposite is true. A tropical cyclone is a low-pressure area in the tropics that has a well-defined center on the surface.
In our part of the world, of course, we refer to these as tropical depressions, tropical storms, or hurricanes.
In the western Pacific, once a storm has winds above 74 mph, it is considered a typhoon instead of a hurricane. It is still a tropical storm when there are winds below 74 mph.
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In the Indian Ocean, storms are just called cyclones.
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