Tropical Storm/Hurricane Nadine

I check the weather channel website "hurricane tracker" every now and then.

Hurricane Tracker

Click the link ^ and Nadine should be the first one to come up.

I don't know much about tropical storm/hurricane movement in the ocean, but do they usually do this kind of swirl? It seems like it keeps looping around everytime it looks as if it will die down.

So what I'm asking is, is this common?

whoa, saw the animation of the storm moving. Never seen one change direction so sporadically like that. I mean I know they are unpredictable but I've never seen a storm tie knots with its path...

Those things are based off spaghetti models......nothing to worry about, it isn't likely to do all that, but the computer model just takes the data as it sees it....as you get farther out, there isn't enough precise data for it to predict accurately.

would be cool if it did that......~here it comes~ ....~there it goes~.....~wait, here it comes again ~.

This isn't uncommon, in fact it happens quite a lot.

Check this map from NOAA, containing hurricane track histories back to the 1800s:

www.csc.noaa.gov...

As you can see, this happens when there is little to no steering current, or when a storm becomes hemmed in by high pressure areas.

Nadine is remarkable for the duration of its existence, thus far 21 days. With each day that goes by, it inches closer to breaking the all-time longest lasting tropical system record of 31 days. This was set by Hurricane John (Pacific) in 1994.

Yeah, I've seen storms do that meandering/wandering path stuff before. No specific names come to mind, but meh, it's not a big deal. Just depends on what the high pressure systems and other influencing factors do that make it roam.

reply to post by windowpane


Thanks for the info. Much appreciated

Wow, really? They do this all the time. I have NEVER seen a hurricane track like this!

Now for the funny reply (or scary, depending on how conspiratorial you really are...)
The enemy was aiming it right for Washington, DC (it really was, initially!) but we got HAARP right on it... and a struggle ensued, such that the hurricane was pushed this way and that, the US now has control of it, and its projected path takes it far from the shores of the US...

Yes, it's not uncommon to have a hurricane double back on its path, or spin around aimlessly for a while. It happens when there aren't steering currents to move it, or when pressure systems box it in so it has nowhere to go.

If you check that link I posted a couple posts back, you'll be able to see that many hurricanes have done this in the past. It doesn't necessarily mean things are out of the norm or that the weather is being manipulated.

Edit: Although, if we start to see a larger number of storms spinning around aimlessly in the Atlantic, it could mean there is something changing with the climate. An alteration in the jet stream due to polar ice melting could have a direct influence on hurricane tracks, as it is often the jet stream that pushes hurricanes off the east coast and out into the Atlantic. In this case you would probably see an increase in the amount of landfalls along the eastern seaboard. And, because you have less motion in the atmosphere, they might be slower moving. This would mean much higher rainfall totals and much more storm damage, as the effect of the storms would be prolonged.

By the way, if you want much more detailed information on current tropical systems than you get from the Weather Channel, check out this website:

www.spaghettimodels.com...