Hurricanes never seem to hit the west coast of the US, why is that?
In: Earth Science
Kelvin waves.
In the tropics, the winds generally blow from the east. So, hurricanes form in the tropical Atlantic, and they get blown westward — towards the US’s East Coast. Meanwhile, in the subtropics, the winds generally blow from the *west*, so once the cyclone gets far enough north, it turns and heads the other way. The easterly winds are due to Kelvin waves, which travel westward along the tropics, and the westerly winds are due to Rossby waves, which travel eastward along the mid-latitudes. As a result, a cyclone forming in the tropical Pacific will usually head to Asia, not to California. But sometimes that’s not what happens, depending on the prevailing winds. If the system starts near Mexico and the jet stream is just wrong enough, it will head north and east instead of west and hit California.
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