why do storms travel northeast most of the time?

Answer 1

Winds and storms mostly come from the west, for a straightforward reason. The Earth rotates from west to east, but the blanket of atmosphere above it lags behind. That's what we perceive as wind: it's actually our Earth that's moving, not so much the air.

Because we're on the north side of the Earth, the air also tends to slide up as Earth rotates through it. So the air (with its storms, which come from varying air pressure) mostly heads northeast.

You can see this effect in your bathtub: rotate a ball underwater, and you can see the water move like storms do.

Answer 2

In the mid latitudes in the northern hemishpere the atmosphere is dominated by the westerlies, which trend to push storm systems from southwest to the northeast. The westerlies are part of the Ferrel Cell of Atmospheric Circulation.

This is part of the basic atmospheric circulation which is made up of the Hadley Cells, Ferrel Cells and Polar Cells. These cells of circulation tend to steer storms systems across the globe.

Answer 3

Because (thunder) storms are most often the result of an encroaching upper-level low pressure trough. The trough forces lower level air to rise, and when cold upper air exists (advected there by the faster upper-level winds), there is instability, and storms result. ("Storms 101")

Typically, as the trough migrates west-to-east, the surface winds may be from the SE, but the winds veer to the W with height. i.e., the wind may be from the SSW at 3000 feet, SW at 6000 to 10000 feet, and WSW at 15000 feet, for example.

The storms (basically) travel along a path that is something of an average of the various directions at various heights. That "average" is most often SW-to-NE.

Answer 4

for us in NA, its the way the wind currents flow in the upper atmosphere......and as for your other Q about why don't they always move NE...because other jet streams push up (like from Gulf) and the air masses meet (called a front) and flow in the direction of the strength of the air masses.

Answer 5

didnt you just ask this?
by the way thats only in the northern hemisphere not worldwide

Answer 6

because that is the way the jet stream flows.