The Orbital Cyclone Strike Index [OCSI] was developed in late 1985 as a tool to predict trends in tropical cyclone tracks in the North Atlantic by Jill F. Hasling and Dr. John C. Freeman of Weather Research Center . The researchers based the index on the premise that the same phenomenon or phenomena that cause the solar cycle on the sun might have a similar effect on the large scale circulation of the earth which would be reflected in the tracks of cyclones. This idea of a relationship between the sunspot cycle and cyclones is not new. Willet (1951) predicted correctly in the early 50's that the period 1959 to 1990 would have a relatively small number of hurricanes in the North Atlantic ocean. His later research found the 11 year sunspot cycle appeared to be related to the climate in the tropics. Recently Labitzke and Van Loon (1987) have showed that the solar cycle correlated highly with the general circulation depending on the phase of the quasibiennial-oscillation (QBO). The QBO is the oscillation of equatorial east-west winds which vary with a period of 26 to 30 months.
The sun has a year that varies from 10 to 13 earth years. For this research this sun year is referred to as the "sol-year" and begins with the earth year that the sunspot minimum occurs. The Sun orbits around the center of rotation of the solar system. This orbit takes 10 to 13 earth years to complete. During this orbit the sun goes through the solar cycle where the sunspots are at their minimum to the maximum and back again to the minimum. While the sun makes its orbit the earth is orbiting around the sun and the large scale circulation patterns of the earth experience some of the same influences as the sun.
The Solar Cyclone Strike Index is made up of cycles and phases. The cycles are the sol-years and range from 10 to 13 earth years. Phase 1 of the index is each earth year when the sunspot minimum occurred and Phase 2 is each earth year one year past the minimum etc. The tracks of North Atlantic tropical storms and hurricanes where then grouped into the Solar Cyclone Strike Index (SCSI).
Each phase of the index is then summarized and landfall along the United States coastlines then compared. The highest two probabilities for each section of the coast were considered to have the highest risk of a storm strike.
The Center has been making these predictions since 1985. In the past 13 years, the outlook has only missed the highest probability strike area in two years, 1987 and 1992. However in both of those years, storms made landfall in the second highest probability strike area. This is an accuracy percentage of 85 percent. The accompanying chart shows Weather Research Center's forecasts for the number of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Basin from 1985 to 1997 versus Dr. William Gray's May 1 forecasts and the actual number of observed storms. Note that WRC's forecasts for the number of storms was exact five of the thirteen years. However, Dr. Gray's May 1 forecast never matched exactly. WRC missed by one storm or less seven out of the thirteen years, while Dr. Gray's forecasts missed by one storm four of the thirteen years.
Year WRC FCST OBSERVED GRAY's MAY FCST
1985 10 11 10
1986 11 6 8
1987 7 7 8
1988 8 12 11
1989 10 12 7
1990 8 14 11
1991 9 9 8
1992 6 6 8
1993 7 8 14
1994 7 7 9
1995 10 19 12
1996 11 13 10
1997 7 7 11
Since 1900 there have only been 14 years when there were no August tropical storms or hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean, which includes the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The last year with no August storms was back in 1961. In 1961, the first storm formed on July 20 and the next storm did not form until September 2. The years with no August storm activity include: 1902, 1904, 1905, 1907, 1912, 1914, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1925, 1929, 1941 and 1961. Nine of these years were El Nino Years.
Since 1900, there has been 13 years when there has only been one tropical cyclone (hurricane or tropical storm) in the North Atlantic Ocean Basin during the month of September. The last time there was only one September storm was back in 1946. The years with only one September storm were: 1902; 1904; 1911; 1912; 1914; 1919; 1922; 1925; 1929; 1930; 1938; 1939 and 1946. The two years without October or November storms were in 1914 and 1930 - both El Nino years. A strong El Nino event is probably to blame for this season's lack of tropical activity. Strong upper level westerly winds prevailed much of the season across the tropical Atlantic Ocean. These stronger winds prohibited tropical disturbances from forming.