Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
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.
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.
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.
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....
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.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.