Dear Tom,
Most of our weather moves from the west, but hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean move to the west. Can you explain this?
Paul Knauth
Dear Paul,
Hurricanes move with the wind flow in the layer between the surface and approximately 40,000 feet aloft. During the summer and fall, a belt of more or less permanent high pressure extends across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and northern Africa, paralleling the Equator.
Winds spiral out of the high in a clockwise direction and generate prevailing easterly flow across the tropical Atlantic, where most hurricanes form. Those prevailing easterlies steer hurricanes to the west, with a slight northward component. As hurricanes continue on that path, they eventually get caught in southwesterlies on the poleward side of the high pressure belt, and they "recurve" to the northeast.
Most of our weather moves from the west, but hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean move to the west. Can you explain this?
Paul Knauth
Dear Paul,
Hurricanes move with the wind flow in the layer between the surface and approximately 40,000 feet aloft. During the summer and fall, a belt of more or less permanent high pressure extends across the Atlantic Ocean between the United States and northern Africa, paralleling the Equator.
Winds spiral out of the high in a clockwise direction and generate prevailing easterly flow across the tropical Atlantic, where most hurricanes form. Those prevailing easterlies steer hurricanes to the west, with a slight northward component. As hurricanes continue on that path, they eventually get caught in southwesterlies on the poleward side of the high pressure belt, and they "recurve" to the northeast.
