ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface   i Table of Contents ii Section 1.  Atmospheric Characteristics     Monthly Wind Fields   Winter Cold Air Outbreaks (extra-tropical winter cyclones)   1 Hurricanes -- Tropical Cyclones 3 Other Severe Weather -- Lightning and Thunderstorms 6 Section 2.  Oceanographic Characteristics   Geographic Setting 7 Local and Deep-Ocean Forcing 7 Implications for Design of the Regional COOS 9 Section 3.  Status of the Regional Observing System 3a.  Observing Elements Introduction               10 Federal Observing Systems               10 Non-federal Observing Systems             11 3b. The Western Boundary Current Time Series in the Atlantic Ocean            Introduction               15 Scientific Rationale               15 Florida Current Transport Measurements           15 Challenges for Sustaining High-Quality Transport Estimates         17 3c. Modeling Systems            Introduction               19 SEACOOS           19 HYCOM           20 NLOM & NCOM           21 ROFS             21 Within-Region Applications              22 3d.  SEACOOS Information Management                 Introduction               24 Information Management System Design           24 Aggregation and Documentation of Data           25 Normalization             26 Visualization              26 Dissemination             26