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
Hurricanes get energy from warmer waters, and the water off the coast of California is too cool to power a hurricane.
When a Hurricane forms the natural winds tends to drive them north and west, so a Hurricane in the Caribbean can be driven into the United State East coast.
Tropical cyclones can also form further south around the West coast of Mexico, but if they are driven north the natural air currents will drive them West into the Pacific rather than into California.
Ocean currents also run clockwise, with colder arctic waters coming south on the right-side of oceans. So warmer tropical waters flow on the left side of the ocean.
This is why Japan gets all the Typhoons instead of California.
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