What happens to the storms?

Question

We just had a bad storm here in the northeastern US.So where does the storm go?Does it go to the arctic?Does Europe get the same storm?Does it just breakapart and die?

Answer 1

This is a very good question. Many of the storms that form over the United States can be tracked into England. They do not go into the Arctic. You can track these storms yourself by looking at northern hemisphere surface weather analyses which are produced every 12 hours. These are available from both the National Weather Service and the ECMWF, the European Center for Medium Range Weather Forecasts. They do occasionally die out as weak waves along the polar front on which they move, but are just as often envigorated by the Gulf Stream and intensify over the north Atlantic.

Answer 2

To answer you question, they basically die down.

Storms are created due to many factors, which is why they are hard to predict until a few hours before. Most of the time they are along a frontal boundary of some type, such as a cold front. This is pushing cold air into a warmer air mass, stirring up all kinds of air particles. All of this energy build up is what causes thunderstorms. So after a front has pushed through certain areas, it might lose enough energy and die. Other reasons a storm might die down is after the sun sets. All storms typically weaken a little after the sun sets because the sun provides a tremendous amount of energy. Some storms, however, keep getting stronger after sunset. This means trouble! Other dampners of storms are altitude shifts. If a storm system has to get over a mountain range, it must increase in altitude and therefore loses some energy, which is why lots of the western storms have trouble with the Rocky mountains. They typically get stuck on a side or linger on top. But you are right. Storms just break apart and die, primarily because of energy content.
Hope this helps!

Answer 3

All of the above actually. Depending on the strength of the storm and the placement of the jet stream, and the dynamics around will decide whether the storms die, head northward into an artic atmosphere, or head to Europe.