Track of Hurricane Gordon, The Right Side of the Storm As a general rule of thumb, the hurricane's right side relative to the direction it is travelling is the most dangerous part of the storm because of the additive effect of the hurricane wind speed and speed of the larger atmospheric flow the steering winds. The increased winds on the right side increase the storm surge described in the Hazards section of this module.
Tornadoes are also more common here. Looking at the figure above, pretend you are standing behind the hurricane with your back to the steering flow. In this case, the right side is the eastern section of the hurricane. If it were travelling east to west, the right side would be the north section. The winds around the hurricane's eye are moving in a counterclockwise fashion. At Point A, the hurricane winds are nearly in line with the steering wind, adding to the strength of the winds.
For example, if the steering currents are 30 mph and the average hurricane winds are mph, the wind speed would be mph at Point A. This side of the storm tends to have higher winds, higher storm surge, seas, and the highest rainfall. Land-falling hurricanes tend to produce the most tornadoes in the right front quadrant too.
This is not to be confused with the strongest part of a hurricane which is the eye wall. The eye wall is the strongest part of the storm because of the air located in the eye wall moves faster than any other part of the storm and it pulls in warmer ocean water to fuel the storm.
In most cases the right front quadrant is the strongest side which includes the right side of the eye wall, this would all be opposite in the southern hemisphere with the strongest side being the left front because of the opposite spin.
Skip to content. Watch Live. I Bridge Shutdown. Back to School. School Day Forecast. Special Reports. Bridging the Great Health Divide. Mid-South Heroes. Friday Football Fever. Tornadoes and waterspouts are very common with landfalling hurricanes and are predominantly in the right-front quadrant in the Northern Hemisphere. By the way, in the Southern Hemisphere, everything that I am saying about right-front becomes left-front due to the opposite sense of rotation.
Wind shear plays a role in hurricane-induced tornadoes, which tend to be weaker but still dangerous than Great Plains type tornadoes. NOAA has an excellent discussion on why they form on its website,. Because the instability in tropical cyclones is focused at low altitudes, the storm cells tend to be smaller and shallower than those usually found in most severe midlatitude systems.
But because the vertical shear in tropical cyclones is also very strong at low altitudes, the combination of instability and shear can become favorable for the production of small supercell storms, which have an enhanced likelihood of spawning tornadoes compared to ordinary thunderstorm cells.
The rainbands, where tornadoes tend to be prevalent, rotating onto the "rougher" land surface provides additional low-level shear. The instability of the atmosphere i. Ironically, Irma produced tornadoes in Florida, but in Georgia where I live, the tornado threat was somewhat minimized because there was not very much instability. Unfortunately, we still bore the brunt of winds, downed trees, and power outages. I personally spoke with many friends and relatives living along the East Coast of Florida who were tormented by the consistent tornado warnings as Irma moved up the western side of the peninsula.
As with the rainfall and surge threat, it was a vivid reminder that the dangers of a hurricane are not just near the eyewall. I encourage the media and stakeholders to continue driving home this point going forward. This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here. More From Forbes. Jul 23, , am EDT.
Jul 15, , am EDT. Jul 8, , am EDT. Jul 1, , am EDT.
0コメント