Recurvature

Hurricane season means Pajamas Media brings out Brendan Loy's hurricane stories.
And the word of the day - recurvature.
With nearly all tropical storms approaching the U.S. East Coast, the crucial buzz word is “recurvature,” as in, precisely when and where will the storm “recurve” off to the north and east? As hurricanes travel across the deep tropics, they move generally west, or just slightly north of west, driven by the trade winds. But as they get into more northerly latitudes, they eventually get caught up in the westerlies, which drive them toward the North Atlantic, “recurving” out to sea.
Sometimes, recurvature happens long before the storm approaches land. For instance, last year, deep troughs of upper-level low pressure consistently steered tropical storms and hurricanes out to sea before they could get anywhere near the U.S. East Coast (this is why the 2010 season, while actually quite active, is not popularly remembered that way). As a result, few people really cared about the exact angle and timing of recurvature.