Hurricane season's heating up

[Skip Intro]

I live on the SC coast, and keep a regular eye on the tropics - look at this map in motion - Hurricane Fabian nearing Bermuda, Tropical Storm Henri about to cross Fla (this one will affect my area as well), and look at the last couple of frames, just east of Africa...

http://www.weather.com/maps/news/atlstorm12/tropicalatlanticsatellite_large_animated.html

(Can't believe I really just started a thread about weather)

[FlaGranny]

1. I was looking at these storms last night and

I started to wonder what would happen if Fabian and Henri collide. It looked like they could get very close. Would they combine and intensify or break each other apart? Anyway, now it looks like Fabian is moving too fast for any collision.

[slackmaster]

2. It's not really possible for two tropical systems to collide

Since both have an anticyclone (outflow) at the upper layers they tend to repel each other. If they get too close they disrupt each others' circulation.

Occasionally an Atlantic storm manages to cross over into the Pacific and regenerate. A few years ago one made it over the Isthmus of Tehuantepic (Mexico) and became a major hurricane over here.

[FlaGranny]

3. That's interesting.

I know that hurricanes can "join" with other storms. Isn't that what happened with the "Perfect Storm"? - three storm fronts converged and one of them was a hurricane or the remains of one. It's a good thing that two hurricanes can't join.

I remember that storm that jumped land and went into the pacific. I believe it was around for a long time.

[slackmaster]

4. They lose their tropical characteristics when that happens

There's a very weird critter known as a "subtropical storm" that happens once in a great while. It's almost tropical but lacks the closed low-level circulation that's required to meet the definition.

Here's my favorite hurricane watching site:

http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/tropic.html

Way down in the lower left corner there are some links to links and other resources. Explore and enjoy!

[FlaGranny]

5. You're either a weatherman or VERY into

weather. :-) Thanks for the site and the info.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

6. When you live on the coast, a few extra hours warning is

a Godsend.

[FloridaJudy]

7. Thanks for the cool link!

So *that* was what that horrendous rain/wind storm was last night! Admittedly, it was only slightly worse than Florida's normal daily evening monsoon...

It's hard to believe how out of touch I am with the local news. The newspaper is some megamedia Repuke rag; cancelling my subscription not only saved me money but did wonders for my disposition. So did not replacing my TV when my house was burgled (I took the Victim's Compensation money and bought subscriptions to Scientic American, Utne Reader, The Nation, Salon.com and a ton of paperbacks). I get all my news off of the 'Net and from NPR.

It does leave me a bit out of the loop when something really nasty is about to happen to my local weather, however.

You've remedied that deficiency nicely. Thanks again!