inda_iwall wrote:Now correct me if I am wrong, but the hurricane is a physical force right, like a spinning wheel somewhat. And when it comes against land such as Cuba, wont the land slow down the first leading edge causing it to take a right? Just like a spinning top hitting a different surface? So with that said, why do none of the models or anything take that into consideration, did that not just happen with Fay? And with just a small deviation down over cuba will result in a big deviation in track, like say 200-300 miles east of where it is?
You're thinking of a hurricane as a solid object when they're actually patterns in air. Land does drag, but since hurricanes are made of air the drag in one part is not well transmitted to the hurricane as a whole (incidentally the models *do* account for it). Also, hurricanes don't have momentum - they really just drift in the wind. If something moves them, say, 50 miles they will just drift with the winds there. Generally that results in the whole track shifting about the same distance, although differential winds could make the change either larger or smaller down the line. It's not like a billiard ball where moving it also changes its momentum, resulting in ever-greater track shifts over time.
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