Basically title – Don’t hurricane’s get their power being over open water? Now that he’s in the Atlantic, shouldn’t he get stronger now?
In: Planetary Science
It certainly can.
We’ve seen storms weaken and strengthen as they move. The Atlantic is warm this time of year but colder than the Gulf of Mexico.
We will still monitor for changes even if not a threat of another landfall
Hurricanes need heat to grow. Milton is now over much cooler Atlantic water rather than the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, so it won’t grow back into a hurricane.
**TL;DR: More OVERALL heat on the left, less overall heat on the right. Florida’s the middle and hurricanes don’t feed from heat over land as well as they do over water.**
First thing is that hurricanes are actually “heat vampires” which is why they start closer to the equator. They get spinning because heat injects a whole friggin’ lot of water vapour. The more heat, the more water vapour.
By extension, the hotter the water (and by coincidence, the air above it), the more energy that the hurricane has to grow with.
The more heat a hurricane area has to work with, the more water vapor it can work with, and the stronger it can get, and the longer it can last after it runs out of the fuel that helps it grow.
And here’s the change: the gulf to the left of Florida is CALM water that roasts in the sun a lot and can store lots of heat that a hurricane can use. Florida itself is all plants and low-lying land, and doesn’t have much surface heat or as much water to work with. And the water to the right is water with a LOT OF CURRENT that constantly mixes hot and cold and so isn’t as good a source of hurricane fuel.
So it gets less fuel as it gains as soon as it hits cooler water and starts eating itself to keep going.
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