| Accumulated Cyclone Energy | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | ACE | Rank | Name | ACE |
| 1 | Hernan | 20.0 | 9 | Genevieve | 3.60 |
| 2 | Elida | 18.1 | 10 | Iselle | 3.15 |
| 3 | Fausto | 16.6 (0.735) | 11 | Cristina | 2.46 |
| 4 | Kenna | 14.2 | 12 | Lowell | 0.885 (1.09) |
| 5 | Huko | (12.9) | 13 | Alika | (1.74) |
| 6 | Alma | 10.3 | 14 | Boris | 1.40 |
| 7 | Douglas | 9.33 | 15 | Julio | 0.565 |
| 8 | Ele | (7.24) | |||
| Total ACE: 101 (23.7) 104 kn2 | |||||
Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) is a measure of the activity of a hurricane season. It is calculated by squaring the windspeed of a cyclone with at least tropical storm-force winds every six hours, summing the results, and dividing that total by 104. As a tropical cyclone does not have gale-force winds until it becomes a tropical storm, tropical depressions are not included in these tables. For all storms, ACE is given to three significant figures. The ACE in the east Pacific proper (140°W to North America) is given; the ACE in the central Pacific (the International Date Line to 140°W) is given in parentheses.
The table includes the ACE for Ele and Huko accumulated only when those storms were located east of the dateline; their ACE west of the dateline is part of the totals of the 2002 typhoon season.
The National Hurricane Center uses ACE to rank hurricane seasons as above-normal, near-normal, and below-normal. It defines below-normal as having an ACE less than 95*104 kn2; It defines above normal as having an ACE above 150*104 kn2 along with the numbers of any two of the following above average: tropical storms (15), hurricanes (9), or major hurricanes (4); It defines near-normal as having an ACE between 100*104 kn2 and 150*104 kn2, or an ACE above 150*104 kn2 with fewer than two of the numbers of the following above average: tropical storms (15), hurricanes (9), or major hurricanes (4).
The 2002 season had a total of fifteen tropical storms, eight hurricanes, and 7 major hurricanes. The total ACE of the season was 101*104 kn2 in the east Pacific proper. This qualifies the 2002 season as near-normal.
Read more about this topic: Timeline Of The 2002 Pacific Hurricane Season
Famous quotes containing the words accumulated and/or energy:
“Cultivated labor drives out brute labor. An infinite number of shrewd men, in infinite years, have arrived at certain best and shortest ways of doing, and this accumulated skill in arts, cultures, harvestings, curings, manufactures, navigations, exchanges, constitutes the worth of our world to-day.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There are no accidents, only nature throwing her weight around. Even the bomb merely releases energy that nature has put there. Nuclear war would be just a spark in the grandeur of space. Nor can radiation “alter” nature: she will absorb it all. After the bomb, nature will pick up the cards we have spilled, shuffle them, and begin her game again.”
—Camille Paglia (b. 1947)