The warm water is the energy source for these storms. Ocean water evaporates, and then condenses back into water droplets. This process releases energy back into the storm, allowing it to increase in strength, when favorable environmental conditions exist.
This is very different from extratropical storms, which are fueled by differences in temperature and moisture over a given region. A subtropical storm has characteristics of both a tropical storm and an extratropical storm. They form initially from extratropical storms, which have colder temperatures in the upper levels of the atmosphere than are typically found in the tropics.
Therefore, they can form in areas where sea surface temperatures are cooler than those needed for tropical systems to initiate. Since warmer ocean water is not as necessary, subtropical storms can also form earlier or later than the normal dates for hurricane season. Typically, what happens is that an extratropical storm will drop southward into the warmer regions of the subtropics. The system then gets blocked by a big ridge of high pressure, and gets cut-off from the cooler and drier air of the higher latitudes.
The system them begins to gain more tropical characteristics in its new environment. As the system gains more tropical characteristics, it will eventually transition into a tropical storm. It is in a sense a hybrid storm system. An extratropical storm has a cold core at its central point.
It is often associated with frontal zones, such as warm fronts and cold fronts. These fronts are essentially lines marking areas of different temperatures and dew points. For example, air masses to the east of a cold front are warm and moist compared to cooler and drier air behind the cold front. We see these kind of systems regularly on the U. They drive our daily weather patterns.
These are mid-latitude storm systems, usually forming between 30 and 60 degrees latitude. Skip to content. South Mississippi Mental Health Resources.
The 4' O Clock Show. News This Week. Friday Night Football Showdown. Giant of the Week. About Us. Contact Us. Weather Blog. Watch Previous Newscasts. Investigate TV. Gray DC Bureau. Subtropical or tropical By Wesley Williams. Updated: May. In order to submit a comment to this post, please write this code along with your comment: 36eba2d5cbb1b64eff9b39a7c. Weather encyclopedia. Hello everyone! About the author Jack Sillin Jack Sillin is an Atmospheric Science student Cornell '22 and weather forecaster who regularly writes for weather.
Related posts.
0コメント