stupid tropical question to kill the time!!!

[shaggy]

How come tropical systems will round the south side of a high then slip up the west side around the periphery but that they Rarely do that on the north side.Sure we see some loops sometimes but most often not.Just a stupid question that i have thought about tonight and wondering why that is.

Anyone have a answer to the stupid question?

[Hurricanehink]

... Good question! I never thought of that, but that is not a stupid question. Anybody, answer?

[ncweatherwizard]

Well, the reason, they don't round the north side and move southward lies in the strength of the ridging. Rarely is there anything to significantly weaken the ridge on the east side and allow the storm to move into that weakness.
The looping often has to do with a storm in weak steering currents, which moves back westward when ridging begins to build again.

Hope that answers something!

Scott

[Matt-hurricanewatcher]

The flow around a area of high pressure over the northern Hem is clockwise. Which moves the storm to the west south of it. Then to the east to the north of the area of high pressure. If there is a weakness/trough an the high the storm will curve earlier. Also because the spin of the planet storms reflect normally northeastward.

[boca]

That was a great question I wondered that also.

[KeyLargoDave]

Hurricanes are moved by steering currents at certain levels of the atmosphere. Winds move clockwise around a high, counterclockwise around a low. If a storm is in the "current" around the south side of the Bermuda high, the winds turn it toward the north at the western extent of the high.

There is also a force, not involving wind, acting on rotating systems, which pushes them toward the poles , but in general it's the winds around a high that move the systems we see coming across the Atlantic. In high latitudes, prevailing westerlies and approaching fronts carry storms away from the North American coast.

Loops and other weird tracks happen in the absence of strong steering currents. A storm can start drifting poleward, then get blocked by a high, nudged in a different direction, left behind until new steering currents emerge, and so on.

Winds along a cold front trailing from a low blow toward the low, roughly parallel with the front. This is what steered Charley toward the northeast into southwest Florida -- a strong front trailed from a low to the north, and winds blowing from the southwest caught Charley.

Others will expand or correct this I'm sure.

You can look at steering currents on the U of Wisc. site at: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/atlantic/winds/winds-dlm.html

[Pileus]

I picture a ridge as only being a part of the bigger Bermuda High. Like an amoeba that changes shapes, does the Bermuda High cast out these
long tendrils that become ridges ? Don't laugh...it's the best analogy I could think of HaHa.

[Hurricaneman]

How come tropical systems will round the south side of a high then slip up the west side around the periphery but that they Rarely do that on the north side.Sure we see some loops sometimes but most often not.Just a stupid question that i have thought about tonight and wondering why that is.

Anyone have a answer to the stupid question?

Its only stupid if you dont ask the question

[tropical]

You can look at steering currents on the U of Wisc. site at: http://cimss.ssec.wisc.edu/tropic/real-time/atlantic/winds/winds-dlm.html

Very nice page there...

Thanks!

[hurricanefloyd5]

how come santa claws in the north pole ain't preparing for hurricane Irene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (kidding/joking)