(AP) -- It's the birthplace of some of the world's strongest
storms, a nearly continuous band of colliding weather systems
near the equator where the Air France jet vanished in the night.
The region is known to scientists as the Intertropical
Convergence Zone. It's where winds from the northern and
southern hemispheres clash, spawning violent thunderstorms that
can tower up to 60,000 feet, far higher than any commercial
airliner could fly over. Officials suspect the Air France jet
carrying 228 people that crashed into the Atlantic Ocean on
Sunday night between Brazil and Africa may have run into trouble
as it crossed into this zone. Reports indicate the plane may
have passed into a 400-mile-long cluster of developing
thunderstorms with lightning and 100 mph updrafts. Basically,
this zone, which experts refer to as the ITCZ, is a stormy
weather band that wraps some 25,000 miles around the world,
generally hugging the equator. Like an ocean current, it's fluid
in its movements as the seasons change, deviating s