Pacific Hurricanes Fausto and Genevieve actually had origins near Africa
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By noaa.gov, noaa.gov.
It may be surprising, but two of the hurricanes that swirled in the Pacific last week began their journeys thousands of miles away off the western coast of Africa.
Both Hurricanes Fausto and Genevieve developed from tropical waves, which are areas of disturbed weather that rolled off a hot, dry African continent near the island nation of Cape Verde. These waves traveled westward across the Atlantic Ocean, crossed Central America and eventually found favorable conditions over the eastern Pacific, where they strengthened into hurricanes.
“For decades we’ve known that most of our Atlantic hurricanes begin off Africa,” said Jason Dunion, a hurricane scientist from the University of Miami who works at NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory. “As satellites began to advance, our understanding of the long journeys of hurricanes has accelerated. NOAA satellites provide us a way to track tropical waves far from their source and into the eastern North Pacific Ocean.”
Eric Blake, senior hurricane specialist at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, said information on how and where a storm begins helps improve forecasts. “Anything we do that maintains our situational awareness, like monitoring these disturbances for signs of development, helps us produce better warnings for people.”
NOAA satellites track disturbances over the globe
NOAA satellites help monitor weather systems around the world, allowing scientists to track tropical waves from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Paul Chang, a scientist with NOAA’s Center for Satellite Applications and Research, said NOAA’s GOES East and GOES West satellites provide near real-time imagery that rapidly updates to show the movement, evolution and path of tropical disturbances.
The GOES East geostationary satellite, also known as GOES-19, keeps watch over most of North America, as well South America, the Caribbean and the Atlantic Ocean to the west coast of Africa. The GOES West satellite, also known as GOES-18, provides geostationary satellite coverage of the Western Hemisphere, including the western United States, the Pacific Ocean, Alaska and Hawaii. NOAA’s JPSS satellites—along with those operated by international partners—provide additional information as they travel in a polar orbit closer to the Earth, capturing every spot on Earth twice a day with instruments that can see through clouds and provide more data on ocean temperatures.
