First Hurricane to Reach Cat 5 in 9 years brewing in the carribean

[Ziggy Stardust]

I'd be more impressed with that story if Mount Washington didn't have a paved road going to the top, and half the people in New England didn't have "My car climbed Mt Washington" bumper stickers.

[Raw Shark]

I'd be more impressed with that story if Mount Washington didn't have a paved road going to the top, and half the people in New England didn't have "My car climbed Mt Washington" bumper stickers.

Yeah, that's for pussies. We took the Amanoosok Trail, which is a semi-technical climb that turns into a white water riverbed when it's raining hard. Went cliff-diving on the lunch break. Have I mentioned that I am an Eagle Scout?

[LadyTevar]

So, the latest outlook on Hurricane Matthew shows it heading back out into the Atlantic after swiping Florida's Coast, and possibly merging with Hurricane Nicole before turning back towards Florida.

[Broomstick]

So... what happens when two hurricanes join together? Bigger hurricane? Or do they cancel each other out somehow?

Must admit, hurricanes are not something I know much about.

[Simon_Jester]

I'm guessing the answer is "it depends," since this is a rare thing.

Probably there'd be some degree of destructive interference since hurricanes have a specific structure, but it might well depend on things like the movement of the storms, their relative strengths, and the angle of collision.

[I don't know much; I'm winging it based on general knowledge of physics]

[Sea Skimmer]

So... what happens when two hurricanes join together? Bigger hurricane? Or do they cancel each other out somehow?

Must admit, hurricanes are not something I know much about.

I looked into this a few years ago when I was tryingto figure outhow fast earth wind could ever blow, and pretty sure would partly disrupt each other, so you'd have a very huge mass of rain that would not go away, but not so much in terms of sustained wind speed or focused eye wall. Hurricane form in the first place because of widespread disruptions between the North Atlantic and South Atlantic Gyre, circulations of current with tremendously more energy then the storms. Basically a Hurricane starts as a normal storm in west Africa, and then rides around the southern edge of the North Atlantic Gyre, and a little above the South Atlantic Gyre, which whips it into rotary motion as it catapults it around, if in slow motion. It follows the Gyre around until conditions get too cold to sustain it, or you hit the end of the gulf stream at mouth of the English channel.

Realistically the conditions required to make these kind of storms more or less make it impossible for them to try to merge as it is, though they can certainly follow each other in a line. Non cyclonic storms can join together much more easily, it's basically just a merging of low pressure regions at that point and happens all the time. Hurricanes merging would just want to turn into this.

Why the cyclonic storms ever form in the first place, nobody is entirely sure, but it's clearly linked to the very slightly higher velocity of the rotation of the planet at the equator. Because the planet is not a perfect sphere. For bonus anti cyclonic storms do exist, but are very rare. We really just don't have computers or models powerful enough yet to explain it in detail.

[Beowulf]

What you're thinking about is known as the Fujiwhara effect. Yes, the storms will merge, and in so doing, disrupt the structure of the storm. But the combined storm might regenerate into a hurricane again, depending on the characteristics of the upper atmosphere supporting it.

I'll point out that most storms are cyclonic in nature. Hurricanes are tropical cyclones, while your normal cold/warm frontal systems are extra-tropical cyclones.