Quote:
Originally Posted by Hudlander
In layman terms can somebody explain:
1) What exactly a tropical wave is (thunderstorms or just clouds), and if not via tropical wave, how hurricanes form?
2) What the difference is between a hurricane and post tropical system.
-Is it just what the main source of power is/lack of closed circulation? In other words, is a post tropical system potentially as impactful as a hurricane?
3) What happens at the end of the life of a hurricane? Where do they go, or become?
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I'm not a Met but will try to answer.
1. Yes, it's an area of instability (low pressure) that may or may not have circulation ie: clouds, rain, thunderstorms. Hurricanes will form from this wave once the wave gets better organized.
2. Hurricane is Tropical. ExtraTropical is when it reaches the mid-upper latitudes. It can still be a Cat 1-5 when it does. ExtraTropical can still have all the characteristics of a Hurricane, ie: showers, heavy winds, thunderstorms, blizzards, and tornadoes, ect. But its over cooler waters. Sometimes it merges with Fronts and the Jet stream.
3. They just dissipate like any thunderstorm. Clouds just get absorbed into the Jet/fronts, or just dry up. One cool thing I learned over the years are the Hurricanes (like Dorian) that heads to the North Atlantic carry so much heat with it that it creates High pressure near Greenland which in turn sets up a Negative NAO potential in the future which in turn pushes the Jet stream down in Eastern U.S which brings colder air down.
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