Re: Hurricane Irene. Are hurricanes supposed to go that far North?

[Taverner]

I've always thought Hurricanes were a tropical phenomenon. How the heck did it get so far North as to flood VT???

[Xipe Totec]

1. Here is a NOAA Map showing all hurricane tracks

http://www.csc.noaa.gov/hurricanes/#

Click on the hurricane icon on the top right.

[William769]

3. WOW!

Thats a busy map.

[liberal N proud]

11. That is cool

[HereSince1628]

2. I recommend Googling 'polar cyclones'...

Low pressure and the Coriolis are at work in oceans all over the planet.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

4. Heck, yes. The effects can be felt as far north as Iceland.

They die out as they get farther north because they can't keep growing in cold air, but the tail ends can extend quite a way north over water.

[Warpy]

5. They are huge storms with tremendous energy

and can travel very long distances over cold water. Hurricanes are not unknown in the Canadian Maritimes, although they are unusual.

In addition, some storms that form outside the tropics can have hurricane strength winds, especially some of the winter storms.

[pipi_k]

6. Well, to be fair....

By the time it got to NJ/CT it was a tropical storm, so technically it wasn't really a "hurricane".

I don't see anything ominous about it, since actual hurricanes have gotten this far north in the past.

:shrug:

[William769]

7. As long as a hurricane has fuel (warm water temp), it will keep going.

And when the fuel decreases it still takes time for the hurricane to die out.

[pipi_k]

12. I thought I heard/read someplace...

that there are hurricanes on Jupiter that have been going for years/decades

?


anyway, I got to thinking the other day when I saw the track of Irene head up toward Canada, what if it managed to survive as a minimal storm till it got across the arctic, then came out on the other side and landed in some more warm water and started back up again...

yeah. I need hobbies...

:+

[MicaelS]

16. Try 181-346 years for the Great Red Spot

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_red_spot#Great_Red_Spot

The Great Red Spot (GRS) is a persistent anticyclonic storm, 22° south of Jupiter's equator, which has lasted for at least 181 years and possibly longer than 346 years. The storm is large enough to be visible through Earth-based telescopes. The GRS rotates counterclockwise, with a period of about six Earth days or 14 Jovian days. Its dimensions are 24–40,000 km west–to–east and 12–14,000 km south–to–north. The spot is large enough to contain two or three planets the size of Earth. At the start of 2004, the Great Red Spot had approximately half the longitudinal extent it had a century ago, when it was 40,000 km in diameter. At the present rate of reduction it could potentially become circular by 2040, although this is unlikely because of the distortion effect of the neighboring jet streams. It is not known how long the spot will last, or whether the change is a result of normal fluctuations.

[raccoon]

8. Congress should pass a law saying that hurricanes can't go any further north than VA.

Makes about as much sense as some of our laws, doesn't it? :silly:

[center rising]

9. Just because hurricane are tropical systems

Doesn't mean they stay in the tropics. All basically a hurricane is, is a system that takes excess heat away from the tropics and sends it towards the poles. Without these storms there would be too much heat in the tropics and the balance would be broken.

[guardian]

10. Not unusual

And definitely NOT an indicator of global warming. That is just an urban myth.


List of about 100 New England hurricanes from 16th century through present day
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_New_England_hurricanes


A particularly bad one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1938_New_England_hurricane

1938 New England hurricane
New England Hurricane Category 5 hurricane
Formed September 10, 1938
Highest winds 160 mph (260 km/h)
Fatalities 682 to 800 direct
Damage $306 million (1938 USD)

Areas affected Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, southwestern Quebec

Part of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season
The New England Hurricane of 1938 (or Great New England Hurricane or Yankee Clipper or Long Island Express or simply The Great Hurricane of 1938) was the first major hurricane to strike New England since 1869. The storm formed near the coast of Africa in September of the 1938 Atlantic hurricane season, becoming a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale before making landfall as a Category 3 hurricane<1> on Long Island on September 21. The hurricane was estimated to have killed between 682 and 800 people,<2> damaged or destroyed over 57,000 homes, and caused property losses estimated at US$306 million ($ 41.1 billion in 2011).<3> Even as late as 1951, damaged trees and buildings were still seen in the affected areas.<4> To date it remains the most powerful, costliest and deadliest hurricane in recent New England history, eclipsed in landfall intensity perhaps only by the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635.

[KamaAina]

13. Yes.

Originally it was feared that Irene might be as bad as the hurricane of 1938 (before we started naming them), with over 600 dead. Then there was Bob in the early '90s, Gloria after that, and... well, bottom line is, yes, every few years, with quite a few more near-misses just out to sea. They tend to get caught up in the Gulf Stream and carried north.

[KamaAina]

17. Then there was 1955, when two hit Connecticut back to back

the rainfall from the second had nowhere to go, except over the rooftops in places like Waterbury.

[laundry_queen]

14. Hurricanes can go as far north as Canada

A few years back Halifax got clobbered by Hurricane Juan, which made landfall there as a cat 2 storm. Basically, as the storm moves north, depending on how strong the storm is and how fast it is moving, even when it runs out of fuel (ie warm water) it will still continue for some time. Like trying to stop a train, it doesn't stop on a dime, it has a certain amount of momentum that carries it for awhile until it eventually slows down.

[Major Hogwash]

15. No, this was a neocon hurricane, it broke all the rulez.

And was brought about because of all of the Democrats disagreeing with Cheney about who was actually the President during those 8 years.