Why does the west coast never get hurricanes but  East coast and Gulf of Mexico always gets hurricanes?
397008
If you mean "the West Coast of the U.S.", then it's for two major reasons:\n\n1.)  Pacific hurricanes usually form at a low latitude, where they're separated from the latitudes of CA northward by a ridge of high pressure.  This prevents directs storm westward while preventing northward movement, especially during the height of the season.\n\n2.)  The waters off the West Coast all always far too cold to support hurricanes.
252961
In all reality, Hurricanes are thunderstorms that have gotten out of hand. The following website explains in further detail. It may be slow to load, but it's a great informative site! Hope this answers your question!\n\nhttp://science.howstuffworks.com/hurricane2.htm\nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane
644465
I recently read an article on accuweather.com about this.  Apparently, it all depends where in the South you're talking about.  Their forecast indicates that Texas to Louisana along with South Florida have the highest chance of seeing hurricanes while West Florida to Alabama (areas hit highly in the previous seasons) have a lower probability of impact.  The overall forecast is for an above average season but not as great as last year's record season.  Anybody saying they know for sure are probably trying to sell you something.  Basically, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.
508994
(1) US does have over 300 million citizens, so its hard to supply enough oil for them alone.\n(2) US mainly has oil in the southern states near the coastline. Hardly anywhere else. With Katrina, things took a HUGE hit, and a oil deficiency was created.
115628
That's a real tough question to answer.\n\nHurricanes don't just result from warm water. If they did we would expect to see more hurricanes in tropical regions than we do. It's fairly complex, but to form hurricanes basically need warm water under a stable, cold, upper level air mass to produce the low pressure bubble. Cyclones and hurricanes only form in a few regions around the world called 'cyclone basins' because only a few regions have those exact conditions. Because the conditions for hurricane formation are so specific it's really hard to predict the effects of climate change.\n\nWarmer oceans should increase the frequency and intensity of hurricanes. Howevere the atmosphere and oceans probably don't warm at the same rate. The atmopshere ATM seems to be warming much faster than the oceans. That might mean that the cold summer air masses needed for hurricane formation will become much rarer, and as a result hurricanes may become far less freqeunt. \n\nAlternatively the cyclone basins may just move. With moderately warmer oceans and a much warmer atmopshere the basins might well move to higher latitudes to where the air is colder. That would be far more catastrophic than a simple increase in frequency. Places that are historically hurricane prone have learned to build to cope with them. If the basins move hurricanes will start stiking places that are not deisgned to withstand them. Can you imagine the effect of a hurricane on New York City or London?\n\nThen we get to throw in other complicating factors like the changes in ocean currents and atmopspheric systems brought about by warming. Weather is the ultimate choatic system, there are a huge number of interscting variables. That makes it just about imposisble to predict 3 months in advance under stable conditions. Trying to predict what will happen 30 years down the track under changing condition is laughable.\n\nAt the moment there is just to much we don't know about how hurricanes form and what the effects of global warming will be. The majority opinion is we'll see more hurricanes and more intense hurricanes, but there is a large minority plumping for movement inthe cyclone basins and a small minoirty predicting decreased frequency.\n_________________\n\n>>>>watch the movie "The day after tomorrow". good movie,\n>>>> and accurate prediction of what could happen if global \n>>>> warming continues.\n\nPMSL. \n\nYeah, and after that watch "Godzilla" for an accurate prediction of what happens following an atomic test.
1102059
There are a lot of people on here who answer just so they can belittle people. I have lived on or along the Gulf coast all my life and hurricane's are a fact of life, if we asked why people built there every time a tornado hit the Midwest people wouldn't like that either. These are our homes and this was where we were raised and just like good Americans everywhere we will fight to keep and protect what's ours. Good luck girl and keep your chin up not everyone on here is a dipstick!
745942
Excellent question!!  And one which is never fully explained on any weather forecast/ weather station....\n\nWeather conditions are controlled by the air currents over the Pacific Ocean, for the most part, first of all.  You can watch typhoons or Pacific hurricanes travel westward, until they reach a landmass, then these low-pressure storms will turn North-Northeast and follow the jet stream, until they are turned South-southeast ward, and affect the U.S. northwest states, Washington, Oregon, California.....\n \nThese extra-tropical storms keep their strength as they travel around the path of the Northern jetstream, droping rain and producing winds not unlike a hurricane, as they follow the jetstream paths around the world.  \n\nAfter these storms, these Pineapple Expresses, have traversed the United States, they again gain strength over the Northern Atlantic ocean, and then let go of the precipatation over Britian and Europe, where the Original storm dies.....\n\nAgain, excellent question.  Hope this enlightens you!!
374496
Both are severe tropical systems that have wind speeds greater than 74 mph.\n\nThey are called "hurricanes" in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean. But once your go west across the International Dateline and into the western Pacific Ocean, they're called typhoons. And of course, the Australians, who have colorful names for just about everything, have their own term for hurricanes: "willy-willys."\n\nTyphoons generally tend to be stronger than hurricanes, but only because there's warmer water in the western Pacific and are better conditions for storm development. And they've been known to affect Seattle: Some of our strongest windstorms ever recorded were remnants of a typhoon in the western Pacific.
706341
The Gulf Stream acts as a heat supply for Western Europe during the winter, keeping it milder than west coast of USA.  During the summer the sea acts as a source of cooler winds keeping much of the land mass in a temperate climate.
773706
It is a peninsula that sticks out into the Gulf of Mexico. Most hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean form off the coast of Africa, inwhich they travel over the Atlantic ocean.\n\nMajority of hurricanes travel over Florida to reach the warm waters of the Gulf. Then Florida may get hit again when the hurricane travels back over the state and travels up the coastline via Gulf Stream
7579
For a very good explanation start here:\n\nhttp://clearlyexplained.com/nature/earth/disasters/cyclones.html\n\nIf you want some additional information read on:\n\nCyclones\n\nThe terms "hurricane" and "typhoon" are regionally specific names for a strong "tropical cyclone". A tropical cyclone is the generic term for a non-frontal synoptic scale low-pressure system over tropical or sub-tropical waters with organized convection (i.e. thunderstorm activity) and definite cyclonic surface wind circulation (Holland 1993).\n\nTropical cyclones with maximum sustained surface winds of less than 17 m/s (34 kt, 39 mph) are called "tropical depressions" (This is not to be confused with the condition mid-latitude people get during a long, cold and grey winter wishing they could be closer to the equator ;-)). Once the tropical cyclone reaches winds of at least 17 m/s (34 kt, 39 mph) they are typically called a "tropical storm" and assigned a name. If winds reach 33 m/s (64 kt, 74 mph)), then they are called:\n\n    * "hurricane" (the North Atlantic Ocean, the Northeast Pacific Ocean east of the dateline, or the South Pacific Ocean east of 160E)\n    * "typhoon" (the Northwest Pacific Ocean west of the dateline)\n    * "severe tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Pacific Ocean west of 160E or Southeast Indian Ocean east of 90E)\n    * "severe cyclonic storm" (the North Indian Ocean)\n    * "tropical cyclone" (the Southwest Indian Ocean) \n\nHow they are Caused\n\nGo to this link for a diagram:\n\nhttp://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/tcfaq/A15.html\n\nTo undergo tropical cyclogenesis, there are several favorable pre cursor environmental conditions that must be in place (Gray 1968,1979) :\n\n1. Warm ocean waters (of at least 26.5°C [80°F]) throughout a sufficient depth (unknown how deep, but at least on the order of 50 m [150 ft]). Warm waters are necessary to fuel the heat engine of the tropical cyclone.\n\n2. An atmosphere which cools fast enough with height such that it is potentially unstable to moist convection. It is the thunderstorm activity which allows the heat stored in the ocean waters to be liberated for the tropical cyclone development.\n\n3. Relatively moist layers near the mid-troposphere (5 km [3 mi]). Dry mid levels are not conducive for allowing the continuing development of widespread thunderstorm activity.\n\n4. A minimum distance of at least 500 km [300 mi] from the equator. For tropical cyclogenesis to occur, there is a requirement for non-negligible amounts of the Coriolis force to provide for near gradient wind balance to occur. Without the Coriolis force, the low pressure of the disturbance cannot be maintained.\n\n5. A pre-existing near-surface disturbance with sufficient vorticity and convergence. Tropical cyclones cannot be generated spontaneously. To develop, they require a weakly organized system with sizable spin and low level inflow.\n\n6. Low values (less than about 10 m/s [20 kts 23 mph]) of vertical wind shear between the surface and the upper troposphere. Vertical wind shear is the magnitude of wind change with height. Large values of vertical wind shear disrupt the incipient tropical cyclone and can prevent genesis, or, if a tropical cyclone has already formed, large vertical shear can weaken or destroy the tropical cyclone by interfering with the organization of deep convection around the cyclone center.
1076574
A hurricane begins as a low pressure area- the lower the barometric pressure the stronger the hurricane.  Warm water- the ocean- is the fuel for the hurricane.  The warmer the ocean temperatures, the more fuel for the hurricane- this also helps the storm to strengthen.  Also, needed is the energy from water vapor condensation- cloud cover.
207705
It is because Easterners were the ones to name the parts of the Country. Note how California isn't part of the South (which really refers to the South Eastern portion of the United States) and the Mid-West is closer to the East Coast than the West Coast. Additionally, California is friggenly huge, it can be considered both South West and North West, depending on which part of the state you're in.
47236
Unfortunatlly its completely impossible to predict that answer. Time has shown that the Atlantic Hurricane Season runs typically on a 30 year pattern. \n\nHowever, if you believe the global warming concept, then naturally the hurricanes could increase. Don't forget though, that Global Warming isn't going to disrupt only the Atlantic Basin, it will be a worldwide weather phenomina. Global Weather Patterns could change and even make Atlantic Hurricanes Disappear if the Atlantic Waters are cooled by polar ice melting.
73199
There's no discernable relationship with the occurence of Katrina - hurricane formation is far more complex than just temperature, and depends much more on local weather conditions.  Hurricanes are powered by warm water, so warming conditions will tend to make storms stronger however, which some see as part of the reason we've had so many strong storms this past year.
216133
Well most (but not all) U.S. hurricanes are caused by heated water near Africa evaporating and rising quickly to form a localized storm cell. These occur in regular tropical waves, which is why hurricanes arrive at intervals. The initial storm cell is pushed west towards the U.S.A. by easterly winds and as it moves the storm can pick up more energy from warm water and combine with other unorganized storms, growing in intensity. It becomes a hurricane when it develops multiple cells and its windspeeds are over 74 miles an hour. It then can be pushed around by large air masses and other pressure zones and winds, usually it gets directed northward as it approaches the U.S. because of high pressure zones like the one around Bermuda (the Bermuda high). Depending on the exact location of these pressure zones and their intensities, the hurricane can be directed up early and miss the U.S., or up into Florida, or in the case of Katrina, into the Gulf of Mexico and then up between Mississippi and Louisiana. Once the hurricane comes onshore, it loses energy quickly as water starts to rain out and reverse the low pressure zones at the center and between the cells of the hurricane. It eventually dies but not before causing lots of wind and water (flood) damage.
761310
hurricanes are given names. Why is that? To help us identify storms and track them as they move across the ocean. Remember, there can be more than one hurricane at a time and without naming them, we could get confused and which storm we're talking about.\n\nFor hundreds of years, hurricanes in the West Indies were named after the particular saint's day on which the hurricane occurred. An Australian meteorologist began giving women's names to tropical storms before the end of the 19th century. In 1953, the U.S. National Weather Service, which is the federal agency that tracks hurricanes and issues warnings and watches, began using female names for storms. \n\nIn 1979, both women and men's names were used. One name for each letter of the alphabet is selected, except for Q, U and Z. For Atlantic Ocean hurricanes, the names may be French, Spanish or English, since these are the major languages bordering the Atlantic Ocean where the storm occur. \n\nSo who decides what names are used each year? The World Meteorological Organization uses six lists in rotation. The same lists are reused every six years. The only time a new name is added is if a hurricane is very deadly or costly. Then the name is retired and a new name is chosen.\n\nhope this helps dude