In a typical October, a large area of low-pressure spans from the Pacific to the western Caribbean to the southwestern Gulf – the so-called Central American Gyre. Occasionally, deep dips in the jet stream interact with the gyre and an independent disturbance gets pulled north. Sometimes, a tropical disturbance that originated over Africa gets absorbed into the gyre, energized, and deflected into the Gulf. During the fall, fronts can dip south leaving behind a nascent distur