this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2023
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No hurricane has ever crossed the equator (i.redd.it)
submitted 1 year ago by Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de to c/map_enthusiasts@sopuli.xyz
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[–] StickBugged@lemm.ee 15 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Does anyone know what the reason for this is?

[–] Blaze@discuss.tchncs.de 45 points 1 year ago

Apparently,

Because of things like Coriolis effect and convective currents, there just aren’t winds that blow across the equator, not at the scale that would blow a hurricane from one hemisphere to the other anyway.

Winds tend to blow along and away from the equator, not across it.

[–] BertusVulgaris@lemmy.world 39 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The earth spins faster at the equator, which is the reason for the rotation of hurricanes. They spin counter clockwise north of the equator and clockwise south of it.

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/coriolis-effect/

Edit: The reason they don't cross is not because of the Coriolis effect working against the original rotation direction if a hurricane crosses the equator, but rather because the storms are moving away from the equator

https://www.soest.hawaii.edu/GG/ASK/hurricanes.html