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Re: [Phys-l] hurricane question



Hi Marty-
I was struck by "these huge cruise ships". As one who has been through a numbeer of hurricanes in the Atlantic, mostly on 30,000 ton aircraft carriers, your cruise ships are not that huge. Nothing, in fact, made by man is THAT huge, when mother nature really gets into one of her frenzies. Our carrier was a midget, in the late forties, compared even then with the Midway class, and one of those, steaming in our company, had aircraft wasshed off the flight deck. We pitied the poor destroyer sailors, tossing and bobbing as they kept their stations on the edge of our task group.
I think that Brian summed up the present state of knowledge of hurricane dynamics pretty well. Weather prediction is one of the future targets of future large scale computer evelopment.
Regards,
Jack



On Sat, 8 Nov 2008, Marty Weiss wrote:

Hi all,
Sorry for any repetition among the same people at physhare and phys-
l. I wonder if the physics people here can answer this question or
direct it to your colleagues in the meteorology department who might
know the answer.
Hurricanes usually begin as tropical depressions in the Atlantic off
the coast of Africa, and then work their way westward to the Caribbean
or Gulf, hitting Florida or the Gulf coast, with some heading north
toward the Carolinas or Bermuda before ending up in New England,
etc. Lately in this season, however, we have seen two hurricanes in
a row (Omar and Paloma) starting in the Caribbean as depressions,
developing quickly into category 3 storms hitting the islands from the
south and west and then heading out into the Atlantic. Why does this
reverse pattern occur? Does it have anything to do with colder
weather patterns and ocean temperatures in the Atlantic?
This is of interest because while my wife and I were on a cruise
several weeks ago the ship was right on the edge of Omar the whole way
down from San Juan to Barbados, and back up the Caribbean to St.
Thomas, and we had to avoid several ports-o-call because of winds and
damage to the docks at some islands. It was exciting to watch the
track of the storm on the ship's closed circuit tv., but because of
the sheer size and speed of these huge cruise ships nowadays there was
no danger, being on the edge of the storm the way we were. (not to
mention a skillful captain and crew, with plenty of food and
entertainment to keep us occupied!)
Hopefully someone on the physics lists can answer but if no one here
knows the answer please forward to someone in the discipline who can
shed some light on this for me. Thanks.

Marty


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