Tropical weather systems comprise a number of features ranging from the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to hurricanes. Most reporters tend to focus on hurricanes because they are big and ferocious however tropical waves, tropical depressions, or even the ITCZ cause significant damage. In 1998 a slow moving tropical depression dumped almost three feet of rain on Central America triggering massive landslides which killed almost 20,000 people. Heavy rains from a tropical disturbance in May 2004 also triggered mudslides in Haiti and the Dominican Republic killing over 2,000 people and wiping out several villages and later that year, rain associated with Tropical Storm Jeanne caused more destruction and death.

Types of tropical weather systems affecting the Caribbean

• Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ)
• Trough
• Tropical Cyclone (Tropical Depression, Tropical Storm, and Hurricane)
• Tropical Wave
• Tropical Disturbance

All things being equal, tropical cyclones will form from a tropical wave. The term which scientists use to describe all the right conditions that form a cyclone is called Cyclogenesis (the genesis or beginning of a cyclone).

A Tropical Wave is an elongated area of low pressure, originating over Africa and blown across the Atlantic by the tradewinds towards the Caribbean Sea, crossing Central America and into the Pacific Ocean. These "waves" can be more correctly thought of as the convectively active troughs along an extended wave train. About 60 of these are generated each year during starting around April or May and continuing to October or November, coinciding with the Atlantic Hurricane Season (June-November). While only about 60% of the Atlantic tropical storms and minor hurricanes (Saffir-Simpson Scale categories 1 and 2) originate from easterly waves, nearly 85% of the intense (or major) hurricanes have their origins as easterly waves. It is suggested, though, that nearly all of the tropical cyclones that occur in the Eastern Pacific Ocean can also be traced back to Africa.