Does anyone know why the path of a hurricane is clockwise?

[Mairead]

With earth's rotation being west to east, you'd think the path would appear to be anti-clockwise.

[applegrove]

1. i think it is counter-clockwise. That is what i heard yesterday.

[Mairead]

2. The path rather than the rotation (sorry for the misunderstanding)

Look at the path: it starts out in the Carib south of Florida, moves north and west in a curving line til it makes landfall and then heads for New England. It's clockwise.

[greenman3610]

3. a meteorologist explained this on CNN tonight

there is a large hi pressure system in the midwest,
kansas missouri area, spinning clockwise, that
is drawing Rita along the southward arc of
it's spiral.

That Hi is slowly moving east, and as it does so,
will draw Rita into it's clockwise motion, to the
north and around.
The movement of that hi has increased today,
and therefore the change in Rita's path
more northward from the Mex boarder
and Corpus Christi, towards Galveston/Houston.

[ladylibertee]

11. That's what I was gonna say,but you said it bettwe . He He

[applegrove]

4. okay - they said because it spins counter-clockwise - the leading

edge tends to favor to the ?. If it is moving north & west - then the leading edge favoring that.

I think?

Aw - I can't figure it out.

[VTMechEngr]

5. Follows the trade winds.

they curve that way. Then the northern ones curve towards britain.




On edit: added pic

[ClintonTyree]

17. The jet stream as well........

the jet stream has a prevailing west to east movement.

[CascadeTide]

6. coriolis effect

storms in the Northern hemisphere are drawn to the North pole while storms in the Southern hemisphere are drawn to the South pole. Southern hemisphere storms turn clockwise.

[applegrove]

7. Do they go clockwise and to the east? Also why so few hurricanes

in South America?

[VTMechEngr]

8. Lots of wind shear in that region.

Wind shear is the anti-hurricane.

[applegrove]

9. I wondered.

[PDittie]

10. Exactly.

Same with the water going down the drain, in both hemispheres. It's magnetic (or gravitational or something). Google is your friend.

[CascadeTide]

12. actually the water thing is overblown

coriolis force has very little effect on small objects,not enough to affect water going down a pipe.

[PDittie]

13. Aha. True dat...

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html

[CascadeTide]

15. it will affect an artillery shot though

and artillerists have to figure it in to their calculations

[PDittie]

18. Fascinating. And by the way...

Welcome to DU.

[CascadeTide]

19. thanks

when do people stop saying welcome? i've been here a month now :rofl:

[Lochloosa]

20. Welcome to DU

we just love to say "welcome to DU"....builds up the post counts...
:spank:

[CascadeTide]

23. hehe, fair enough

hey look, i just got one more! :P

[PDittie]

28. I usually don't stop until

I see someone who has about 300 posts or so.

:hi:

[BiggJawn]

21. Winnah!

That's also why water swirls down the drain the opposite way Down Undah...

[CascadeTide]

26. no that's because their toilets are built differently ;)

"The Coriolis force is so small, that it plays no role in determining the direction of rotation of a draining sink anymore than it does the direction of a spinning CD."

http://www.ems.psu.edu/~fraser/Bad/BadCoriolis.html

[BiggJawn]

27. Well, I'm in good company, any road...

" A physics student from Nottingham University, in the U.K., wrote to tell me that the physics textbook they are assigned in one of his courses states:

"...on a smaller scale, the coriolis effect causes water draining out a bathtub to rotate counter clockwise in the northern hemisphere..."

Sigh, this mind-numbing example of scientific incompetence is offered by author, Paul A. Tipler, on page 128 of his book, Physics for Engineers and Scientists, 4th Edition. One wonders if Tipler gets the relative magnitude of the other forces in nature wrong, or if he reserves this privilege for the Coriolis force. In the U.S.A., the book's publisher is W.H.Freeman, and in the U.K. it is Worth Publishers. SHAME ON BOTH PUBLISHERS."

Yes, and shame on me. Count me amongst the Enlightened now...

Wow. it's a Good Day, I learned something new!

[Mugsy]

24. No hurricanes in the S.Hem.

The don't get hurricanes South of the equator.

Dunno why.

[CascadeTide]

25. sure they do

you just don't hear about them unless you live there

http://australiasevereweather.com/cyclones/history.htm

[ThomWV]

14. Its Just A Big Heat Engine

Think of it like this - there is a lot of heat at the equator and not much at the poles. A Hurricane moves the heat from the equator to the poles - and in the case of the ones we watch (hurricanes can occur south of the equator, but they are rare) that means they will move north in time. Now, think about the earth's rotation, with any given point apparently moving to the east. From the point of view of the storm, were it not moving at all, as the earth passed under it moving to the east the storm would apear to be moving to the west. Well, its more than apearances.

[CascadeTide]

16. hurricanes don't always move west

2 of the last three, philippe and ophelia, have moved northeast from their origin below the bahamas.

the path they take has more to do with weather systems: highs, lows & wind patterns than anything else. The spin of the earth probably would only have a direct effect if there was a large puppeteer holding the storms on a string above the earth ;)

[Mugsy]

22. It's due to the Earth's rotation.

Here is why it ROTATES counter-clockwise. Others have already explained why it moves West...

The eye of a hurricane (and tornado for that matter) is where cold air is rapidly falling. If the Earth didn't rotate, it would be a straight shot down to the ground. But since we are turning, the path down gets twisted... thus the rotation. The faster the air falls, the tighter the center gets and the stronger the winds become.

Now MY question is: Why are there no hurricanes in the Southern hemisphere (they don't get them).

From Houston about to get hit: Mugsy.