The “Superstorm”

The “Superstorm”

 Everything that moves needs a source of energy to do it.  Chewing uses energy and the very food we chew is that source.  Plants get energy from the Sun.  Large storms also need energy; tropical storms get their energy from the warm ocean waters and mid-latitude storms (our winter storms) get energy from the temperature difference between the cold arctic and the warm tropics. 

In the summer the arctic regions warm and the temperature difference between the arctic and the tropics decreases.  However, the oceans warm which increases the energy available to tropical storms such as hurricanes.  That is why we have summers without “winter like storms” but summer brings the threat of tropical storms and hurricanes in the southern regions of the U.S.

Normally as fall progresses the threat of Hurricanes rapidly decreases and the threat of winter storms rapidly increases------and-----the two rarely meet.  This week shows what happens when they do, and it is catastrophic.  The sorrow and anguish caused is immeasurable.

Unfortunately for the east coast there is a highway of warm water that flows northward just off shore that allows tropical storms to move north into regions that would otherwise be too cold to sustain them.  This is the Gulf Stream.  The further north and the later into fall tropical storms can travel increases their chance of reaching the mid-latitudes and cold arctic air where they can tap into the sources of energy that power winter storms.

As the oceans become warmer so does the Gulf Stream and the warm highway along the east coast will stay warmer later into the fall.  This increases the chance of this type of devastating storm combination.