Hurricanes Rotation?

tedog

Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
591
Reaction score
506
Location
WV
Do they always rotate in a counter clock wise direction? If so, does anyone here know why?
 
Register to hide this ad
Hurricanes and tropical storms that hit North America or any place in the northern hemisphere spin counterclockwise. All cyclones and tropical storms in the southern hemisphere spin clockwise. The direction of a hurricane's spin is caused by a phenomenon called the Coriolis effect.
 
........an effect whereby a mass moving in a rotating system experiences a force (the Coriolis force ) acting perpendicular to the direction of motion and to the axis of rotation. On the earth, the effect tends to deflect moving objects to the right in the northern hemisphere and to the left in the southern and is important in the formation of cyclonic weather systems.
 
The Coriolis Effect also requires that the earth's rotation must be accounted for to achieve long-range artillery accuracy. It's insignificant out to several thousand yards, but much beyond that it can become very significant. It's a fairly complex concept and somewhat counter-intuitive, but can be thought of as the target moving due to the Earth's rotation while the shell is in the air. Sort of like leading a moving target in order to hit it.
 
Last edited:
Let's try this: Imagine a ball in the northern hemisphere flying due north at a fixed height above the ground. It would have a northerly velocity but it would also have an easterly velocity due to the spin of the earth. The farther north it got the closer to the earth's axis it would be. That means the the earth's circumference would be smaller. That old eastern velocity means the ball would tend to drift toward the right. Just the opposite if it were moving north. (I'm told north/south train rails wear predictably unevenly for the same reason.)

Given that tendency it's easy to see how the spin develops as air flows in to fill the low pressure that causes a hurricane.
 
Do they always rotate in a counter clock wise direction? If so, does anyone here know why?

They will rotate either CW or CCW depending on if they are in the Northern or Southern hemisphere.

However, the DIRECTION that they travel is always toward a TRAILER PARK... :D
 
Just like hurricanes, the water in a flushed toilet (or draining bath tub) spins counterclockwise in the northern hemisphere, and clockwise in the southern.
 
The direction a commode flushes in the southern hemisphere is determined by shape of bowl. Water draining from a toilet or bathtub is the same as in the northern hemisphere.
 
Back
Top