A FREAK storm that battered the coast of southern Brazil last month has blown away meteorologists. Because hurricanes are unknown in that part of the world they are left wondering how it formed and what to call it.
The American Meteorology Society has organised a special session at its meeting in Miami next month, but resolving the conundrum of the 27 March storm, which killed at least two people and damaged thousands of houses, could take months or even years, says Jack Beven of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.
In the North Atlantic hurricanes and tropical storms, which are…
