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

NOR'EASTER NAMING? The nor'easter produced winds that gusted near hurricane force and major coastal damage from the Carolinas to New England. So should the storm have gotten a name? My answers are no and yes. So no, the National Hurricane Center should not have taken over the forecasting and communications surrounding the nor'easter. It was not a tropical system. It was a non-tropical storm technically called a warm seclusion – the mature stage of an extratropical (non-