What happins if TWO Hurricanes slam in to each other in the Atlantic ocean?

Question

i was wondering, if two hurricanes hit each other at the atlantic ocean as catagory 5, does it get bigger and and stronger possibley as a catagory 10!?

Answer 1

The same reason why we don't have anything higher than a F-5 or EF-5 tornado is also the same reason why we don't have any Hurricanes catoglorize higher than a CAT 5. Both of them, by definition, will cover any wind strength at that given level plus any higher speed above the given level. Now to try to answer the rest of your question. Hurricanes tend to follow the upper flow pattern so they tend to follow the same path given the same conditions exists. So I don't think you will ever see a "head on" crash between two hurricanes. However, a CAT 5 hurricane is strong enough to influence the surrounding upper flow pattern that is usually the results of the synoptic or larger scale forces. So in this case with two CAT 5 hurricanes, all bets maybe off. But the speed of a hurricane also depend on a lot of other factors like the total diameter of the storm, the diameter of the area of strongest winds, and the changes in wind shear, sea surface temperatures, and surround air pressure... just to name a few. So it is likely to see one hurricane traveling right behind the other. If the second hurricane is traveling faster than the first one or the net change in speed between the two allows one to reduce the distance between them, then it is possible that one may "catch up" with the other one. Most of the answer so far given to you is correct. What usually happens is that one will weaken the other or both will weaken as the wind shear from one starts to interfere with the other as they get close (as mentioned by Paul Ding, Publius, and Just_One's_Man's_Opinion). Sometimes they will start to rotate in a circular fashion (as mentioned by pegminer) and is called the Fujiwhara effect. But that is hard to imagine with large hurricanes because they take up so much space that if one rotates around the other, one would be either get too close to the equator where it loses some of the influence of the Cf Force or one would swing high in latitude into the cooler waters and lose it's CAT 5 strength. So in this situation, one weakening the other if more likely the case. Remember it very hard for the atmosphere to support just one CAT 5 for any period of time. It just take too much energy and if you study physics...nature does not like to keep something that highly unstable to exist for a long time. If one finally weakens enough where it beomes disorganzed, it may be absorb by the stronger one. In any case, it is rare to have a CAT 5 hurricane at any time and even much rarer to have two at the same time. Then you throw in the possibility that they will be near each other, that would be one that I don't think I will ever see in my lifetime. And I certainly would not like to see those two "eyes" staring at me as I try to forecast where they will make landfall. If something like that was to occur and both hurricanes are heading for shore, I would hope everybody will heed the warnings and nobody will be staying around anywhere near the coast in a path of two CAT 5 to see what happens.

Answer 2

In all theory the Hurricanes would never "slam" into eachother due to the fact that the coincidence of 2 hurricanes being even within the same vicinity of eachother during a week is less than 1%. The hurricanes would have to either catch the Jet Stream in the US at different times or locations would need to be ideal for any of this at all to work. Lastly, if two hurricanes are in the Gulf of Mexico or Atlantic Ocean they would be feeding off the same ocean and thus weakening eachother greatly, the best situation you could get would be a CAT 3-4 slamming into a tropical storm/tropical depression, which would decrease the intensity of the hurricane.

Answer 3

First off ... hurricanes move very slowly, so I'm not sure they ever "slam" into anything. Secondly, no matter WHAT would happen, these two hurricanes aren't going to go to a cat 10 storm, since there is no such thing! Thirdly, hurricanes TEND to move in the same direction and often at similar speeds (when they're in the same general area); so, the likelihood of them merging (far different than slamming into each other) is lessened. Lastly, there are too many variables to predict what would happen. I've seen cases where one storm robs the other of its energy, resulting in a downgraded storm. I've seen other instances where the two storms combined with little appreciable change in conditions. And of course we have seen some cases where events do come together just right, giving birth to a bigger, stronger storm. As I said, there are simply too many variables to say. And my answer wouldn't change even if those two storms were coming together right now! One weather model would be predicting one outcome, while another predicts something different. Weather forecasting is a little science and a lot of guesswork.

Answer 4

The maximum rating is Category 5. All these TV shows (Category 6!) are bogus.

The hurricanes cannot exactly just "slam" into each other. Because of the counter-clockwise rotation, they would "spin around eachother" more. In addition, the two would probably weaken. Hurricane development depends on lack of shear, meaning that the atmosphere must be fairly "smooth". The hurricanes would both mess up all the neccesary conditions for eachother and destory eachother.

Answer 5

Because both storms are rotating counterclockwise when they impact each other they would tear each other apart then would reform as one storm. the new storm would not be able to achieve the same strength as before due to the fact that hurricanes need warm water of at least 80degrees Fahrenheit to maintain hurricane wind velocity of at least 74 m.p.h. . When hurricanes move they churn up water from the deep ocean which is much cooler than the warm surface water. This is why a hurricane that is stationary will lose strength as the surface water will cool. for a hurricane to maintain category five strength (155m.p.h.) they must keep moving to new warm water other wise they lose power and become tropical storms. now the chance of this happening is extremely rare but would be very interesting to watch from a satellite.

Answer 6

Two hurricanes would spiral around each other in what's called the Fujiwhara effect (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujiwhara_effect) . If they merge, the smaller one would tend to be absorbed into the larger. It's hard to say how the intensities would change, that's governed by a lot of different factors. It would not make a Category 10, their strength would still be limited by the water temperature, so the maximum strength would still be Category 5.

Answer 7

There's no such thing as a category 10.

Since the winds surrounding a tropical depression always turn in the same direction, putting two in close proximity of each other would result in destructive interference.

Answer 8

I think, depending on how fast they were going, they may just either join together and possibly go faster, or just die out from the impact of the collison.

Answer 9

if your in the path I kinda doubt you would be around to tell the aftermath

Answer 10

cat 5..the perfect storm..