Storm track

The storm tracks usually begin in the westernmost parts of Atlantic and Pacific, where the large temperature contrasts between land and sea cause cyclones to form, particularly in winter.

Surface friction cause these cyclones to quickly fill up and decay as soon as they reach land at the eastern end of the basins, accounting for the easternmost edges of the storm tracks.

Storm tracks can shift position, causing important climatic patterns.

As an example, during La Niña the Atlantic storm track shifts north causing droughts in Palestine, while during El Niño it shifts south bringing heavy rains to the same region.

Given a grid point field of geopotential height, storm tracks can be visualized by contouring its average standard deviation, after the data has been band-pass filtered.