Intertropical Convergence Zone of human errors which ultimately doomed the flight. Most aircraft flying these routes are able to avoid the larger convective cells without incident. 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
Tropical Storm Cristobal (2002) system over the Mid-Atlantic States produced rip currents and 4 foot (1.2 m) waves along the south shore of Long Island, New York; three people drowned from the rip currents. Two ships recorded tropical storm force winds in association with the storm; the vessel with the sign WUQL reported sustained winds of 47 mph (76 km/h) from the west-southwest on August 7. Tropical Storm Cristobal (2002) Tropical Storm Cristobal was a relatively weak tropical cyclone that meandered in the western Atlantic Ocean prior to being absorbed into a frontal zone. The third named storm of the 2002 Atlantic hurricane season,