What is interesting is that as late-to-get-going and as light of a season 1977 was in terms of the number of storms (only 6), there were two bursts of activity when groups of storms were forming in the span of a week or less.
Anita - formed August 29
Babe - formed September 3
Clara - formed September 6
Evelyn - formed October 13
Frieda - formed October 16
Certainly a scenario we could see unfold this year....get a few days of very favorable conditions and systems being in an area to capitalize on those conditions, and it is not surprising that this can happen.
Ptarmigan wrote:wxmann_91 wrote:Info I got from a met - globally, the monsoon has been suppressed this season. This probably accounts for the decreased activity worldwide, as it is the monsoon that helps spawn the easterly waves in Africa and the WPAC disturbances, both seedlings of TC's.
Many tropical cyclones do come from monsoon troughs and in many ways tropical waves for the Atlantic come from them. I know these tropical waves can be traced from eastern part of Africa. Hurricane Ike can be traced from a mesoscale convective system that formed in Sudan.
I also heard one reason why 1977 was inactive was likely due to monsoon as well. Philippines was in a drought that time. Also, the ambient pressure was higher than normal in the Atlantic.
Large File!
http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/general/lib/li ... s/1977.pdf