MIAMI - Researchers are working to find out how and why some easterly African waves develop into hurricanes and some do not as part of the Intensity Forecast Experiment, known as IFEX.

This earliest stage of intensity change is just one aspect that hurricane researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory in Miami are studying this summer.

"Intensity change is NOAA's top tropical cyclone research priority as it is the most difficult component to forecast and can significantly alter how a community prepares for a landfalling storm," said Frank Marks, director of the NOAA Hurricane Research Division.