this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025
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[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago (2 children)

I think a better question is why are the northern hemisphere hurricanes so much more feathery and beautiful than those raggedy ass southern hemisphere hurricanes and tropical storms.

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago

Because there are way more in the northern hemisphere I assume ? Probably due to greater differential between water and air temp in general in the northern hemisphere due to currents and shit

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 hours ago

Oh man, I didn't realize that Oman got hit by tropical storms.

[–] Scribbd@feddit.nl 1 points 1 hour ago

A yo mama joke that only works with this context:

Yo momma's ass so fat, no hurricane dares to cross her ass crack.

[–] Aussiemandeus@aussie.zone 2 points 3 hours ago

That's because when they cross the equator they become cyclones

[–] sit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

Im certain that’s because of tornado related physics and things. 👍

[–] SebaDC@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 8 hours ago

I'm guessing it's because they rotate in different direction in the northern and Southern hemisphere.

So crossing would imply switching direction, which would require to put that energy "somewhere" and it's physically not possible.

[–] Deceptichum@quokk.au 24 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

That one little fella in South America - must have been confusing as fuck for them.

[–] mmddmm@lemm.ee 17 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Is the only one Brazil ever recognized as a hurricane. But it's believed that they happen every once in a while, they are just not classified correctly.

[–] Genius@lemmy.zip 2 points 4 hours ago

Why wasn't it recognised as a cyclone? Was it spinning backwards?

[–] Subtracty@lemmy.world 20 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

Can someone smarter than me explain why South America is seemingly immune to hurricanes?

[–] Zagorath@aussie.zone 5 points 13 hours ago (1 children)
[–] kata1yst@sh.itjust.works 23 points 12 hours ago

https://www.ncesc.com/geographic-pedia/why-do-hurricanes-not-hit-south-america/

According to this, TL;DR- South America is further from the swirling warm winds of topics than it looks, and the ocean temperatures are colder compared to the hurricane prone areas too due to how the oceanic currents work.

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 37 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Not only is NZ on this map but it's not even way off in the corner!

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 23 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

I’m happy for NZ but it might be a good idea to stay hidden for the time being.

[–] sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 9 hours ago

We need a maps without nz Lemmy house

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 13 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

Front and center!

-ish!

[–] 5714@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 14 hours ago
[–] Inf_V@kbin.earth 11 points 15 hours ago (4 children)

really interesting. what's the reason why?

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 68 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Stole explanation from r/ELI5:

When you stand on the north pole how fast are you moving relative to the earth’s core?

Zero, you just spin around in place once every 24 hours.

When you stand on the equator how fast are you moving?

1000mph, you have to circumnavigate the earth in a day.

This difference doesn’t matter much when you throw a baseball, but it absolutely matters when you’re a storm the size of a country. > This disparity in relative speed rotates the storm since the equatorial side is moving faster than the polar side, and it provides the swirling structure of the hurricane.

But here’s the problem - storms in the north spin counter-clockwise and storms in the south spin clockwise.

That means to cross the equator you have to stop and reverse direction. That’s not happening, and hurricanes never track near the equator because neither the storm itself nor the prevailing winds that push it around can approach this reversal boundary.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 29 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

The equator itself is associated with very low wind speeds, aka the doldrums.

[–] Uli@sopuli.xyz 5 points 9 hours ago

Ah, the calm belt.

[–] ShittyBeatlesFCPres@lemmy.world 13 points 15 hours ago (2 children)

Probably Coriolis effect? I’m not a professional meteorologist but I am an amateur meteorologist. I live in New Orleans and hurricanes follow somewhat predictable patterns. (Maybe not always where you can pinpoint exactly where they’re going but they tend to turn north in the northern hemisphere and south in the southern hemisphere.)

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 5 points 14 hours ago

You can also look at some of the coastlines and see the millions of years of erosion from the same patterns once the continents moved more into what we have now.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world -2 points 12 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (1 children)

The coriolis effect is a fictitious force, it's just an artifact of not doing measurements in an inertial reference frame.

Edit: If I were to attribute it to anything, I'd attribute it to the actual rotation of the earth.

[–] Successful_Try543@feddit.org 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

As the highs lows are part of the earth's atmosphere and thus trapped in a non-inertial frame of reference, they indeed experience the fictitious forces, such as the Coriolis and the centrifugal force.

[–] NocturnalMorning@lemmy.world 1 points 38 minutes ago

The coriolis effect is not an actual force, that's all I'm saying.

[–] Peppycito@sh.itjust.works 7 points 14 hours ago

If you've ever heard of sailors talking about 'the doldrums' the calm bit is the doldrums.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 14 hours ago

I'm going to say the Coriolis effect but... I don't know?

[–] jqubed@lemmy.world 6 points 14 hours ago

Interesting that the western Pacific seems to have so many more category 5 than the Atlantic, and while the South Pacific and Indian Ocean have plenty, the South Atlantic has basically none.

[–] Melatonin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 14 hours ago

Hats off to the little guys here and there who came close...