How low can you go?

[gunner1551]

I hope this question hasnt been asked before. I looked!!

I was wondering what the lowest latitude a storm can form?? I understand that there is the optimum lat and that even a few degrees can mean the life or death of a storm. On this link you can see the waves aligning themselves but what I was looking at was that the second storm in line is lower then the first. COULD this storm have potential even though it is quite large in size?

http://www.metoffice.com/satpics/disk_eur.html

Thanks for the help

[patsmsg]

Seems to me I heard out here somewhere that 10 degrees is about it, but I'm sure that is not an absolute. I do know I read a post that said that the closer you are to the equator, the lest corialis effect there is.

Anyhow. someone will post a knowledgeable response, and I too look forward to it.

[Ixolib]

Though some will disagree, a "hurricane" hit Brazil in 2004. You can see it in the pic below just east of the coast of Brazil. Not sure where it formed, though...

[Scorpion]

Aw it so cute and little .

[Derecho]

By "low" I presume you mean closeness to the equator...

The record is Typhoon Vamei which hit Singapore at an incredible 1.5 degrees north of the Equator. There SHOULDN'T have been "enough Coriolis" that low, but there was a vorticity enhancement from a cold surge of air coming from the north.

http://www.weather.nps.navy.mil/cpchang ... /vamei.htm

Previously the record was another Typhoon at 3.3 North.

The claim that "not enough Coriolis" means that waves or lows in the North Atlantic can't form below 10 North is pure nonsense; in other tropical basins it's routine for storms, and even strong typhoons, to form from 5 to 10 degrees from the Equator. It's the Atlantic that is the odd unusual basin.

Main thing is, when the shear and SSTs in the Atlantic are favorable for development, which is a fairly short period of time compared to other basins, the ITCZ is around 10N, meaning that you really don't have much that COULD form south of 10N.

[Aslkahuna]

Typhoon Vamei became a typhoon at latitude 1.5N just north east of Singapore. Although few Atlantic systems form below latitude 10N, amny storms in the Southern Indian/South Pacific/Western North Pacific Oceans
can and do form and even develop quite a bit of intensity between 5 and 10 degrees from the Equator and can even rarely form equatorward of 5 degrees latitude. Reason being that the cyclonic horizontal shear associated with the monsoon circulation patterns in these areas can more than make up for the lack of Earth's Vorticity (Coriolis) by generating the necessary spin.

Steve

[kevin]

Everytime I hear people talk about the need for coriolis, I think of Derecho.

[Hurricanehink]

Cyclone Agni in the North Indian Ocean formed at a .7º North on November 28, 2004.

From Gary Padgett's monthly tropical summary of November 2004.

The initial warning location of TC-05A's center was only 42 nm north of the equator! The lowest latitude system so far to date was Typhoon Vamei in December, 2001, which was a typhoon only 90 nm north of the "line". However, even more astounding is a QuikScat image taken of the pre-warning circulation at 27/0107 UTC. This image clearly shows a broad, somewhat elongated circulation with a COUNTERCLOCKWISE spin centered about a half-degree SOUTH of the equator! It appears that this system of Northern Hemisphere origin dipped just south of the equator and then came back without losing its counterclockwise rotation. It would be a pretty good bet to say that this is the first documented case of such an occurrence.

Just wow!

[gunner1551]

In not to technical terms please!! just learning!! what is this Earth's Vorticity or Coriolis. I guess we could talk about the reverse of this situation. What would be the highest lat that a storm could form if the shear and SSTs in the Atlantic were favorable.

Thanks

[HurricaneBill]

That's amazing. Cyclone Agni actually dipped to 0.5S as a tropical wave while having a counterclockwise circulation!

Yet despite this, Agni is hardly mentioned much.

[Hurricanehink]

That's amazing. Cyclone Agni actually dipped to 0.5S as a tropical wave while having a counterclockwise circulation!

Yet despite this, Agni is hardly mentioned much.

Yea, Vamei in 2002(1?) is always mentioned as the impossible one, but this thing, aside from being the first North Indian storm ever named, crossed the equator! That should have gotten some more attention.