Why doesn’t the western coast of the US get hurricanes or tropical storms? And how do hurricanes on the eastern coast have the energy to move so far inland/north once they make landfall?
In: Planetary Science
Big storms like warm water. The water on the west coast is generally far too cool to allow the big storms generated in the southern latitudes to maintain their structure. Once they hit the cooler water it starts to degrade. That’s why TS Hilary was such a big deal. It’s very rare to even have a TS level storm out here. Even if an actual hurricane did make it ashore, the topography would start to shred it apart pretty quickly.
The storms on the east coast are able to move so far inland because of the warm water that surrounds the land mass. Couple that with flat land masses once it comes ashore and you get an highly energized storm that is able to continue inland with little resistance from the high elevations that tend to shred these storms.
Latest Answers