They don’t go on forever otherwise the earth would be covered in them right?!
In: Planetary Science
Think about it this way: why does a fan stop turning if you unplug it?
Because without a source of energy to keep it going, the kinetic energy within the fan is gradually bled away by friction with air and its own parts, until there’s none left and it stops.
Same thing with weather systems. They’re far more complex, of course, but the energy comes from somewhere. For hurricanes, that somewhere is primarily warm ocean water. As soon as the storm moves over land or over colder water, it no longer has a source of new energy to keep it going, so the energy already in the system gradually dissipates through natural forces.
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