The link between tropical waves and hurriances

Florida Today: This August NOAA is to repeat a research project from the 1970s to try and find out why one in 10 of the tropical waves that come off Africa turns into hurricane. The 2006 program will use better instruments than the earlier project, and combine ground observations, aircraft and satellites to study these stormy systems. Hurriances are receiving more attention this year after hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans almost a year ago. "Katrina's a great example of a system that was not doing very well in the eastern and central Atlantic, and then it managed to blossom into a very strong, major hurricane," said Jason Dunion of NOAA's Hurricane Research Division.