Why does hurricane season continue throughout the fall?

[unschooler]

I live in the west; would someone clue me in? It seems to me that the hurricane season would tend to weaken as ocean temperatures cool (or at least I would expect they would) as winter approaches. Last year, I think there was a hurricane in late November, was there not?

[graywarrior]

1. Global warming. Water stays warm alot longer.

[HadItUpToHere]

4. and as the water gets increasingly warmer during the summer months-

hyper-canes are not out of the question.

[phantom power]

2. it takes time for the atlantic to cool off.

And clearly, global warming is making it last longer. I believe we had a tropical storm in december last year.

[unschooler]

6. I flew coast-to-coast on December 1 last year, and I have the

distinct impression that we had to route north to the Great Lakes to avoid a hurricane.

[phantom power]

9. the one I remember was off the atlantic coast.

As tropical storms go, it was nothing special, except that it was happening in December.

[Ilsa]

3. The Gulf Stream keeps waters warm enough

in the southern ocean to create storms that could wander into the Gulf of Mexico, which stays warmer longer. Yes, we've had tropical storms and hurricanes make landfall beyond the summer into mid-autumn. I live in southern Texas and have been through a number of hurricanes and tropical storms.

[unschooler]

7. So if the Gulf Stream slows or stops due to warming in the N. Atlantic,

I wonder how that will affect the hurricane calculus. Will the warm water just stay in the south and create more and bigger hurricanes?
:scared:

[Ilsa]

10. I think that might have been one scenario from a

global warming doomsday prediction.

[unschooler]

11. Very scary, isn't it?

[Massacure]

5. What absorbs and stores heat much better than air.

Thus it takes much longer to warm up, and it takes much longer to cool down.

[unschooler]

8. Oh, yeah. Doh!

:dunce:

[Massacure]

12. lmao, why did I start my sentance with what instead of water?

I feel stupid now. :blush:

[happyslug]

13. The key is the Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf is a shadow body of water that heats up easily, and stays hot for a long time. The heat of the Gulf of Mexico is believed to be what pushes the Gulf Stream NORTH (the Gulf Stream along with Florida keeps cold water AWAY from the Gulf, thus keeping it warm for months.

The main flow of COLD water into the Gulf is from the Mississippi River (You do get flow from the Caribbean, but it is warm water like the Gulf of Mexico thus further heating up the Gulf of Mexico). Until that water starts to cool down (and that is ONLY happening now) the Gulf will stay warm till about November.

If you look at Hurricane Katrina it was NOT that big a storm when it went into Florida, it only became a Category 4 once it reached the Gulf of Mexico and was cooked into a Category 5 Hurricane by the heat of the Gulf of Mexico. Thus right now the key to BIG Hurricanes is the Gulf of Mexico.

On the other hand, most Hurricanes starts as Tropical Depression of the Coast of Africa that then heads west. About this time of year the Hurricanes stay to head up the Atlantic with the Gulf Stream as opposed to floating by the Northern Coast of South America into the Gulf OF Mexico (This is what Lee did and Maria is doing, i.e. heading north in the middle of the Atlantic). Thus most later storms tend to be Atlantic Steams as opposed to Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico Storms (But while the shift does occur, you can still have storms hitting the Gulf as late as November).

One more comment, while the Hurricane "Season" ends in November, Otto did not appear till December 2004. Late Hurricanes are possible

For more details see the Hurricane Center:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/index.shtml?

Map of Hurricanes in 2004:


Achieves of Past years Hurricanes:
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastall.shtml