Airfrance A330 Disaster - Equatorial region known for massive storms
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 several degrees north and south. The zone's shape is more like a slithering snake than a pencil-straight line, and can sometimes be several hundred miles wide. While the region can be quiet and calm, it is also "the birthplace of our strongest storms on Earth," said Henry Margusity, a senior meteorologist for AccuWeather.com.
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