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Old 11-23-2011, 12:05 PM
 
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I'm really curious as to why the South Atlantic rarely has tropical storms.
According to wikipedia it says because of strong upper level winds but I wasn't able to confirn this on any other sites or why the South Atlantic has these winds when other oceans don't.
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Old 11-23-2011, 01:05 PM
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Location: Western Massachusetts
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The Sea Surface Temperatures tend to be cooler in the South Atlantic. I can't remember too well, but the South Atlantic doesn't have the same summer pressure setup as the North Atlantic, affecting the wind patterns.
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Old 11-23-2011, 01:12 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, Canada
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The South-East Pacific seems to have this phenomenon too.

Yet, Baja and the equivalent Pacific coast up north suffers terribly from them, despite the fact that it's effected by a similar cool current. Odd.
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Old 11-23-2011, 01:20 PM
 
Location: Vancouver, Canada
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I find the gaps in this map more interesting that the hurricane zones, which seem to form in fairly similar lattitudes elsewhere:

File:Global tropical cyclone tracks-edit2.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Old 11-23-2011, 01:29 PM
 
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If it's true that the Southern Atlantic has cooler sea surface temperatures does that mean the Brazil Current is that weak. Brazil seems to have decently hot temperatures.

I compared Montevideo with Wilmington NC and while summers aren't as hot. The winters are about the same if anything in Montevideo there's warmer winter lows.

And as CairoCanadian pointed out off of Baha they do get tropical storms despite the cooler current.
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Old 11-23-2011, 07:33 PM
 
Location: In transition
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I think in the case of the Southern Pacific.. the Humboldt current is incredibly strong.. stronger and colder than any northern hemisphere counterpart. I mean the cool water goes all the way up to the equator.. the Galapagos are affected by it.
By contrast, the cool California current tends to peter out at the bottom of Baja and is replaced by a warm current.. I think that's why you have the tropical storm activity.

As far as the South Atlantic.. I'm not sure.. perhaps it has to do also with the cold Benguela current running up the west coast of Africa somehow prevents tropical storm formation similar in the way tropical storms form off the west coast of Africa which has a warmer current... and since the storm track is from East to West... it prevents tropical storm formation or any storms that do form peter out quickly due to the cooler water....

All of this is just my guess though....
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Old 11-23-2011, 10:25 PM
 
Location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
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Hey, dont call for storms here in the south atlantic!

Leave us here with no tsunamis or hurricans or earthquakes and all that, natural disaster free!! Im touching wood!!!
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Old 11-24-2011, 09:22 AM
 
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The North Atlantic also has a cooler current the Canary Current which flows southwest to Senegal. Thought from looking at this the Brazil Current becomes the cold Benguela Current as soon as it leaves the coast of South America. Whereas the Gulf Stream keeps on going right to Europe.



It almost looks like the Gulf Stream is stronger because there's less area of water between North America and Europe. While in the South Atlantic there's a lot of water between South America and Africa not to mention Antarctica gives a lot of influence because of being colder and more continental then anywhere's up north.

This map leaves me even more confuse as Western Australia has the cold West Australia Current going up the length of it but yet they get tropical storms.
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