Storm tracks are the relatively narrow zones in the Atlantic and Pacific along which most Atlantic or Pacific extratropical cyclones travel.
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The storm tracks begin in the westernmost parts of Atlantic and Pacific, where the large temperature contrasts between land and sea cause cyclones to form, particularly in winter. Surface friction cause these cyclones to quickly fill up and decay as soon as they reach land at the eastern end of the basins, accounting for the easternmost edges of the storm tracks.
Another example of a storm track is the circumpolar storm track in the Antarctic, however land-sea contrasts play no role in its formation.
Given a grid point field of geopotential height, storm tracks can be visualized by contouring its average standard deviation, after the data has been band-pass filtered.
Famous quotes containing the words storm and/or track:
“Think of the storm roaming the sky uneasily
like a dog looking for a place to sleep in,
listen to it growling.”
—Elizabeth Bishop (1911–1979)
“Water. Its sunny track in the plain; its splashing in the garden canal, the sound it makes when in its course it meets the mane of the grass; the diluted reflection of the sky together with the fleeting sight of the reeds; the Negresses fill their dripping gourds and their red clay containers; the song of the washerwomen; the gorged fields the tall crops ripening.”
—Jacques Roumain (1907–1945)