Intertropical Convergence Zone Intertropical Convergence Zone The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms, is the area encircling Earth near the Equator, where the northeast and southeast trade winds converge. The ITCZ was originally identified from the 1920s to the 1940s as the "Intertropical Front" ("ITF"), but after the recognition in the 1940s and the 1950s of the significance of wind field convergence in tropical weather production, the term "ITCZ" was then applied. When it lies near the Equator, it is called the near-equatorial trough. Where the ITCZ is drawn into and merges with a monsoonal circulation,
Tropical Storm Agatha Tropical Storm Agatha Tropical Storm Agatha was a weak but catastrophic tropical cyclone that brought widespread floods to much of Central America, and was the deadliest tropical cyclone in the eastern Pacific since Hurricane Pauline in 1997. The first storm of the 2010 Pacific hurricane season, Agatha originated from the Intertropical Convergence Zone, a region of thunderstorms across the tropics. It developed into a tropical depression on May 29 and tropical storm later, it was dissipated on May 30, reaching top winds of 45 mph ( and a lowest pressure of 1000 mbar (hPa; 29.53 inHg). It made landfall near