“ROTATION: If they are north of the equator they rotate clockwise. If they are south, they rotate counter-clockwise.”
It’s actually the reverse. What your statement describes is an anti-cyclone. Low pressure systems that generate cyclonic activity rotate in a counterclockwise motion in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. This is why north of the equator, cyclonic systems tend to travel in a northwesterly direction until carried toward the east, once they dissipate, due to frontal systems or jet streams that move generally west to east. Also, it’s ‘Arabian’ Sea and ‘Indian’ Ocean and not ‘Arabia’ and ‘India’ respectively.
Does this mean that a storm rotating clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere cannot cross the equator into the Northern Hemisphere where the storms rotate counter-clockwise?
Jim- Typically, cyclonic storms do not cross the equator due to diminished Coriolis effect around the equator (+ or – 4 degrees latitude). The Coriolis effect is caused by the earth’s rotation. At the equator, it’s virtually nil. Almost all cyclonic storms are formed at latitudes further away from the equator and generally move away from the equator in either hemisphere.
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“ROTATION: If they are north of the equator they rotate clockwise. If they are south, they rotate counter-clockwise.”
It’s actually the reverse. What your statement describes is an anti-cyclone. Low pressure systems that generate cyclonic activity rotate in a counterclockwise motion in the Northern Hemisphere and clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere. This is why north of the equator, cyclonic systems tend to travel in a northwesterly direction until carried toward the east, once they dissipate, due to frontal systems or jet streams that move generally west to east. Also, it’s ‘Arabian’ Sea and ‘Indian’ Ocean and not ‘Arabia’ and ‘India’ respectively.
Does this mean that a storm rotating clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere cannot cross the equator into the Northern Hemisphere where the storms rotate counter-clockwise?
Jim- Typically, cyclonic storms do not cross the equator due to diminished Coriolis effect around the equator (+ or – 4 degrees latitude). The Coriolis effect is caused by the earth’s rotation. At the equator, it’s virtually nil. Almost all cyclonic storms are formed at latitudes further away from the equator and generally move away from the equator in either hemisphere.
what happens to the rotation if the storm crosses the equator?
This is not true, they all go the same direction, per any storm chaser and website, even the weather channel.