Q&A on the News

Q: I was born and raised in Miami and have been around hurricanes since 1946. Just within the past few weeks, the meteorologists that I have watched have started referring to them as cyclones. Pacific storms were referred to as cyclones and Atlantic storms were referred to as hurricanes. Why the sudden change? —Carol Crooks, Jonesboro

A: The National Hurricane Center made the change this year, Glenn Burns, chief meteorologist for Channel 2 Action News, told Q&A on the News.

“All low-pressure areas are cyclones. The name hurricane belongs to the storms in the Atlantic and eastern Pacific. Typhoons are the names given in the western Pacific. Cyclones are the storms in the Indian Ocean. A Willy-Willy is what they are called in Australia,” he wrote in an email. “They are all cyclones and (it) just decided it would call all of them cyclones.”

With the new Potential Tropical Cyclone forecast, the National Hurricane Center also can issue warnings even though a storm has yet to form but has a possibility of forming in the next 48 hours, Burns wrote.

Previous long-standing National Weather Service policy did not permit issuing a hurricane or tropical storm watch or warning until after a tropical cyclone had formed, according to a statement from the National Hurricane Center, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“Advances in forecasting over the past decade or so, however, now allow the confident prediction of tropical cyclone impacts while these systems are still in the developmental stage,” according to the statement. Fast Copy News Servicewrote this column. Do you havea question? We’ll try to get the answer. Call 404-222-2002 or email q&a@ajc.com (include name, phoneand city).