A screaming eagle is a tropical wave

Tropical wave

Tropical waves, easterly waves, or tropical easterly waves, also known as African easterly waves in the Atlantic region, are a type of atmospheric trough, an elongated area of relatively low air pressure, oriented north to south, which move from east to west across the tropics causing areas of...

 whose convective pattern has a strong resemblance to the head of an eagle. It is a tropical wave with active thunderstorm

Thunderstorm

A thunderstorm, also known as an electrical storm, a lightning storm, thundershower or simply a storm is a form of weather characterized by the presence of lightning and its acoustic effect on the Earth's atmosphere known as thunder. The meteorologically assigned cloud type associated with the...

 activity at its apex, which is shear

Wind shear

Wind shear, sometimes referred to as windshear or wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere...

ed by either westerly winds aloft, or by strong easterly winds at the surface. The term was first seen in an Air Force

United States Air Force

The United States Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the American uniformed services. Initially part of the United States Army, the USAF was formed as a separate branch of the military on September 18, 1947 under the National Security Act of...

 satellite

Satellite

In the context of spaceflight, a satellite is an object which has been placed into orbit by human endeavour. Such objects are sometimes called artificial satellites to distinguish them from natural satellites such as the Moon....

 interpretation handbook written by Hank Brandli in 1976.

Climatology

These systems are typically located within 25 degrees latitude of the equator. When seen within satellite imagery, they can be used to detect the presence of a tropical wave. Rain

Rain

Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. Rain requires the presence of a thick layer of the atmosphere to have temperatures above the melting point of water near and above the Earth's surface...

 showers and surface wind

Wind

Wind is the flow of gases on a large scale. On Earth, wind consists of the bulk movement of air. In outer space, solar wind is the movement of gases or charged particles from the sun through space, while planetary wind is the outgassing of light chemical elements from a planet's atmosphere into space...

s gusting to 25 knots (49 km/h) are associated with these waves. They move across the ocean at a rate of 13 knots (25.5 km/h). Strong thunderstorm activity can be associated with the features when located east of a tropical upper tropospheric trough

Tropical Upper Tropospheric Trough

A tropical upper tropospheric trough , also known as the mid-oceanic trough, is a trough situated in upper-level tropics. Its formation is usually caused by the intrusion of energy and wind from the mid-latitudes into the tropics. It can also develop from the inverted trough adjacent to an upper...

.