SadPanda: To All DU Readers Who Have Never Experienced a Major Hurricane, Just Trying to Help

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DUer SadPanda posted this in GD - and it sure seemed to make sense, nice clear concise summary of hurricane behavior. Hurricanes rotate COUNTER-CLOCKWISE. Great little reminder!

:thumbsup:


I moved from Ohio to South Florida over ten years ago. I was financially affected by Hurricane Charlie. I was personally and financially affected by Hurricane Wilma. I was financially affected by Hurricane Ivan.

I understand and can explain the behavior and effects of hurricanes.



Hurricane Irene is a real monster. The reason it is a monster has to do with three factors. Size, track, and rotation. Irene is tracked to just barely hug the coastline of the entire Eastern seaboard of the United States from North Carolina until it slams into Long Island. It's a big storm. Similar to Floyd. And the back rotation over open water will feed it until it's 60 miles past Long Island.

Hurricanes rotate counter clockwise. The southern side of the storm is always rotating to the east. The northern side is whipping back towards the west.

Usually the storm slams into land and the rotation breaks up. This degenerates into a water dump of the entire storm on one particular region. For example, Hurricane Katrina into the NW Gulf Coast or Hurricane Floyd into NC.

This storm is bizarre. It will hug the entire eastern coastline. It appears the storm will literally follow the coastline from southern NC until it collides with Long Island. During that trip the southern CC motion will be carrying wind and water back out into the ocean. Only to whip back to the west on the front of the storm. That front end is like the tip of the spear. That spear won't really die until it's 70 miles past the coast somewhere in upper New England. Even then it will probably drop nearly a foot of rain into those Canadian provinces.


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