Question by JB: Why don’t hurricanes in the East Atlantic travel towards Western Europe (Like Spain, Ireland And England ) ?
It’s just on my mind, the fact that even last year when tropical storms and hurricanes formed around north africa and traveled all the way to america ?? Or in the mid atlantic , how come not one has gone eastwards or northwards towards Europe ?
Best answer:
Answer by abbies panda
Cause hurricanes are tropical storms and Europe isn’t warm enough for that since they are not near the equator. Notice how hot places closer to the equator have them like africa and southern North america and australia
Give your answer to this question below!
There are warm watter currents in the oceans. The hurricanes in the Atlantic follow the warn water currents to the Americas.
They do travel that way but often disipate or become extratropical lows before hitting England/Ireland. Some severe storms have hit there that were once hurricanes, but they are no longer tropical storms which require warm waters and little wind shear to maintain their structure.
Hurricanes are steered by the prevailing mid-level winds, which blow from east to west at the tropical latitudes where most hurricanes form. If they move far enough north, hurricanes encounter the mid-latitude winds, which blow from west to east and cause hurricanes to “recurve” to the north and northeast. Nearly all recurving hurricanes lose their tropical characteristics long before reaching Europe, although their extratropical remnants can still be strong enough to cause severe damage. However, Spain has been hit by the still-tropical remains of two hurricanes in the last few years, Vince in 2005 and Gordon in 2006 (see first two links) as well as a possible full hurricane in 1842 (third link).