why do hurricanes spin counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern hemisphere?

Question

I looked this up and it said the Coriolis effect so I looked that up and I have no clue what it’s talking about…

In: 222

Answer 1

Take a clear piece of plastic, a window, or something transparent that you can draw on with a dry erase marker or sharpie. Draw an arrow going clockwise on one side. Now flip it over and look at it from the other side.

Alternatively, If you have a friend, face them and extend your arm forward. Use your arm to make some small circles in the air going clockwise, ask your friend what direction they observed your arm moving.

You see looking at a rotating object from two different perspectives will give you differing results. If you move your arm clockwise your friend will observe your arm going counterclockwise

Now imagine you are in space looking straight down from the north pole watching the earth rotate. You watch a plane depart from the north pole in a straight line towards the equator. the earth rotates under the plane. (Edit: Planes start off rotating with the earth, but a plane rotating with the earth at the pole rotates in a tiny circle while a plane near the equator rotates in a large circle. As the plane near the pole takes off and flies towards the equator the plane is still trying to rotate with the tiny circle from the pole but the ground moves faster under the plane at the equator) Now imagine the same thing from the south pole view. You see the same effect but in the opposite direction. That’s the coriolis effect.

[This graphic](https://cdn.britannica.com/11/113711-050-1ECECE85/path-rocket-effect-North-Pole-Coriolis.jpg) shows what I’m trying to explain.

As for why hurricanes rotate in the opposite directions imagine some air moving away from the north pole but towards the center of the hurricane. Because the coriolis effect the moving air is deflected slightly to side of the hurricane. This effect continues as it goes round and round in the hurricane. [Like in this image](https://scijinks.gov/coriolis/hurricane-direction.png). To imagine the southern hemisphere you just have to image the same thing but from underneath just like directions mirrored when you looked at the other side of the plastic sheet from earlier.