Wrong Answer! Actual TV Hurricane weatherwise question/answe

[bamajammer4eva]

I can not believe the station I turn to when the weather gets really bad in my immediate area would put out this question and then awarded someone for answering the wrong answer?!!! Did I miss something?? Anybody living in a hurricane zone knows its AFTER mid august that you look to the open Atlantic for tropical cyclone formation. It is really scary to know that this is the best we have in our area and I as well as another viewer have corrected them before on a tornado question and got an oops email and our names announced on air that we both corrected them. Why ask a question if you don't know the right answer yourself?!

[RL3AO]

Its just a poorly written question overall.

However, by "Open atlantic" they probably meant the part of the Atlantic north of the Caribbean where Bret and Cindy formed.

Without going into storm maps, I'd wager that it might be the right answer though since its just a bigger area then the Caribbean or GOM.

The area you thinking of is usually referred to as the central Atlantic or Main Development Region.

[Florida1118]

It also depends on the year. Like 2005, very few formed in the MDR.

[Hybridstorm_November2001]

Terrible, everybody knows the average (June through July) is the Western Caribbean Sea.

[brunota2003]

I did a study on where the first named systems formed in the Atlantic between 1980 and 2009...first, here is a tidbit from my file:

***Subtropical and unnamed storms are NOT used in this study (in the case of the “A” storm being subtropical entirely, then the next storm is used)***

***If the system was first designated a subtropical cyclone, then became tropical, the date, lat/long and max wind speed used is for the TROPICAL time only***

***Tropical depressions are not used, only tropical storms or higher***

Despite the Caribbean being considered the early season breeding grounds, the results were a bit surprising, with the area I labeled as the "Northwest Atlantic" winning over the Gulf of Mexico (followed by the Caribbean/Central Atlantic). Remember, this is for the first named TROPICAL system only.



Granted, I know this is only for the first named storm, but still somewhat relevant and quite interesting.