CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — There are a lot of words you hear during hurricane season like tropical wave, invest and hurricane.
You may already know what some mean, but others, not so much. Here are a few words and phrases you need to know.
Tropical Wave
This term is one you might hear frequently before a storm forms. A tropical wave is an unorganized area of storms traveling west out of Africa. These are important to follow because around 85% of major hurricanes begin as tropical waves.
Invest
Invest stands for investigative area. When a tropical wave becomes organized, the National Hurricane Center will designate the area of disturbed weather "Invest."
Each invest is given a number from 0-99.
For example, Invest 90L: The "L" tells us the system is in the Atlantic Ocean. This also allows the NHC to run ensemble or spaghetti models on these systems.
Cyclone
A cyclone is a blanket term for any area of low pressure that has closed circulation. Hurricanes, tropical storms and tropical depressions are all cyclones because they are a closed area of low pressure.