The Other Hurricane The Other Hurricane The genesis of two
category-five hurricanes (Katrina and Rita) in a row over the
Gulf of Mexico is an unprecedented and troubling occurrence. But
for most tropical meteorologists the truly astonishing "storm of
the decade" took place in March 2004. Hurricane Catarina -- so
named because it made landfall in the southern Brazilian state
of Santa Catarina -- was the first recorded south Atlantic
hurricane in history. Textbook orthodoxy had long excluded the
possibility of such an event; sea temperatures, experts claimed,
were too low and wind shear too powerful to allow tropical
depressions to evolve into cyclones south of the Atlantic
Equator. Indeed, forecasters rubbed their eyes in disbelief as
weather satellites down-linked the first images of a classical
whirling disc with a well-formed eye in these forbidden
latitudes. In a series of recent meetings and publications,
researchers have debated the origin and significance of
Catarina. A crucial question is this: Was Cat