JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sea surface temperatures in the Atlantic are above average, but so are waters around the world. And as meteorologist have been saying for years this can translate to not exactly more tropical systems but instead more powerful and longer lasting ones.
Already this year three separate storms have broken record ACE values. Now first what is ACE?
It’s a metric used to express energy released during a cyclones lifetime. So not just it’s peak strength.
Think of a weight lifter, we are looking at not just how much weight they can lift at once but how much over the course of a set.
The most recent record for this is Cyclone Biparjoy which became the longest lasting cyclone in the Arabian Sea and broke the all time ACE record for that area prior to coming on shore.
Just this past month in the Western Pacific Super Typhoon Mawar broke the record for the most intense storm in the Month of May and recording the highest ACE value in the month of May as the storm rolled over the western pacific for nearly 3 weeks.
Then back in February, Cyclone Freddy became the longest lasting and highest ACE producing storm ever in any basin on earth. That storm lasted five weeks and 2 days as it traversed the water of the Indian Ocean.