A lesson in tropical weather

After Ike, Hanna, and Gustav, the inevitable question Megan and I get from all those not on our little rock is "How are the hurricane's affecting you?". Simply answered, they are not. Grenada is south, WAY south. Why is that important? Well most storms form off the tip of Africa around the Cape Verde islands then head north west. The Cape Verde islands are a ways north of us, therefore storms generally pass above us and don't come anywhere near us. To demonstrate take a look at the below picture. (again thanks to stormpulse.com, except for my red editing lines).
Get the idea? So all is well and perfect right? Never a thing to worry about? ......

Well... sort of... Did you notice the large orange circle which encompasses Grenada (labeled as "St. Georges" since that's the capitol city of Grenada)? That would be a medium potential "disturbance"... a what? I've learned a lot about weather and one thing I've found is that these weather guys are very particular about the terms they use to describe tropical weather and few of them make logical sense, but here's the order in increasing level of severity...

Everything below is considered part of a "Tropical Cyclone" apparently the term for "severe" tropical weather.

A "Tropical Wave" WITH the right pressure areas create the first level noted by the National Hurricane Center, a "Disturbance"

Disturbances come in Yellow (Low less then 20%), Orange (Medium 20-50%), or Red (High greater then 50%) potentials for turning into a larger storm. Most that I have seen are low or medium and do not end up being anything.

Increasing slightly in formation and intensity would be a "Tropical Depression"...

Next is a "Tropical Storm" - when it reaches this level the storm has the great honor of being named. If you hadn't noticed they name storms alphabetically. The last storm was Josephine which means "K" is up next. Sweet! Time for a storm named Kris!

If things really start to get interesting (aka the wind speed exceeds 60mph i think), then the storm is classified as an official "Hurricane", there are Category levels 1 through 5, five being the strongest.

Wave>Disturbance> Depression> Storm> Hurricane
Got it? (reminds me a bit of the stages of grieving...)

For any of you from the gulf coast or Florida this is probably stuff you learned in 2nd grade, but for us Californians it's a WHOLE new language.

So... getting back to that orange circle around Grenada.... That is the result of weeks of hard dedicated rain dancing by yours truly, (the weatherman might not agree but he's crazy). We currently have a medium potential disturbance forming north west of us, which essentially means were getting a bit of rain and a nice cooling cloud cover layer for a couple days.

Now if you've been keeping up on this blog since the start you might be wondering "OK, if there are no storms there then what the heck is with all the buildings with no roofs???..... As much as Europeans my enjoy going topless, Grenada does not. Hurricane Ivan forced the subject upon this nation without even the slightest pause for consideration. Below is a picture showing the tracks of all Atlantic tropical cyclones for 2004. As you can see everything was starting much further south then the Cape Verde islands and moved straight west for some time before heading north, hence Grenada got hit for the first time in 55 years.
Hopefully this helps answer a few questions, if you fell asleep a few times on your way though try watching the weather on Fox next time, they'll surely keep you wide awake as they describe the end of the world with each coming rain cloud...