Sep 6, 2025 08:04 PM
(This post was last modified: Sep 6, 2025 08:09 PM by C C.)
https://time.com/7314938/how-rare-pacifi...iko-lorena
EXCERPT: For all of the natural and human-made hardships the U.S. west coast must endure—earthquakes, droughts, wildfires—it is generally spared hurricanes. Even as two new named storm systems—hurricane Kiko and tropical storm Lorena—currently churn in the Pacific Ocean, neither is expected to cause extensive damage.
[...] But those events, while certainly disruptive, do not compare to the sometimes historic storms—Katrina, Andrew, Mitch—eastern Mexico, the Caribbean, and the southeast U.S. must endure during the annual hurricane season. What is it that keeps the Pacific Ocean comparatively quiescent while the Atlantic is regularly roiled by storms?
The difference in hurricane activity between the two oceans is actually more climatological illusion than fact. According to the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, the average Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, sees 14 named storms, including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes—categories 3, 4, and 5. This is actually slightly fewer than what the Pacific basin sees during its May 15 to November 30 hurricane season, with 15 named storms including eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
“The Pacific is a much larger body of water, and a lot of that water is in the tropics,” says University of North Carolina climatologist Charles Konrad, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Southeast Regional Climate Center. “It's the biggest spawning ground for what we call tropical cyclones, which include hurricanes and tropical storms. More of them form out there.”
The Pacific’s greater reach gives storms plenty of room to roam, but while they take advantage of that—especially in the tropics—they generally steer clear of North America’s west coast, going unnoticed by most people in the U.S. There are a number of reasons for that.
For one thing, the water in that part of the Pacific is relatively cool. [...] Winds play a role too. Low altitude trade winds steer hurricanes in a general east to west direction. [...] In recent years, hurricane events in the Pacific have been tempered further by more frequent La Niña cycles, when ocean waters are cooler than usual. [...] keeping things quieter still along the U.S. west coast... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPT: For all of the natural and human-made hardships the U.S. west coast must endure—earthquakes, droughts, wildfires—it is generally spared hurricanes. Even as two new named storm systems—hurricane Kiko and tropical storm Lorena—currently churn in the Pacific Ocean, neither is expected to cause extensive damage.
[...] But those events, while certainly disruptive, do not compare to the sometimes historic storms—Katrina, Andrew, Mitch—eastern Mexico, the Caribbean, and the southeast U.S. must endure during the annual hurricane season. What is it that keeps the Pacific Ocean comparatively quiescent while the Atlantic is regularly roiled by storms?
The difference in hurricane activity between the two oceans is actually more climatological illusion than fact. According to the National Hurricane Center and the Central Pacific Hurricane Center, the average Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to November 30, sees 14 named storms, including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes—categories 3, 4, and 5. This is actually slightly fewer than what the Pacific basin sees during its May 15 to November 30 hurricane season, with 15 named storms including eight hurricanes and four major hurricanes.
“The Pacific is a much larger body of water, and a lot of that water is in the tropics,” says University of North Carolina climatologist Charles Konrad, the director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Southeast Regional Climate Center. “It's the biggest spawning ground for what we call tropical cyclones, which include hurricanes and tropical storms. More of them form out there.”
The Pacific’s greater reach gives storms plenty of room to roam, but while they take advantage of that—especially in the tropics—they generally steer clear of North America’s west coast, going unnoticed by most people in the U.S. There are a number of reasons for that.
For one thing, the water in that part of the Pacific is relatively cool. [...] Winds play a role too. Low altitude trade winds steer hurricanes in a general east to west direction. [...] In recent years, hurricane events in the Pacific have been tempered further by more frequent La Niña cycles, when ocean waters are cooler than usual. [...] keeping things quieter still along the U.S. west coast... (MORE - missing details)
