Hurricane Hilary recently took place on the west coast of the United States. As a result, the National Hurricane Centre (NCH) issued its tropical storm watch for a few regions of Southern California.
California experienced an extremely wet winter due to the numerous atmospheric river storms. They also faced the phenomena of the "Fujiwhara effect" at the time of one of such storms. This was when two low-pressure areas interacted.
The Fujiwhara effect
The Fujiwhara effect talks about a natural phenomenon when two hurricanes or cyclones spin in the same direction and interact around a common center. It gives the image that the hurricanes or cyclones are interacting in a dance-like manner. In such a case, in case one of the cyclones is stronger than the other, it can actually absorb the weaker one.
What happens when the cyclones are of similar strength?
When cyclones are of similar strength, they may either rotate around each other or get merged. In a few instances, the two cyclones or hurricanes could merge and become a mega-cyclone. This can get extremely dangerous and difficult to handle.
It was Sakuhei Fujiwara, the Japanese meteorologist, who described the Fujiwara effect for the very first time.
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Ways in which the Fujiwhara effect can take place
There are multiple ways in which the Fujiwhara effect can actually occur. These ways are:
Elastic interaction
In this form of interaction, it is only the direction of the storm's motion that changes usually. These are the situations that are relatively challenging to asses and thus require a close examination.
Partial straining out
In this type of interaction, a part of a smaller storm gets lost in the atmosphere.
Complete straining out
The next type of Fujiwhara effect is the complete straining out. As the name suggests, in such an interaction, a smaller storm gets entirely lost in the atmosphere. Straining out does not occur for storms that are of equal strength.
Partial Merger
The next type of Fujiwhara effect to discuss is the partial merger. In this form of interaction, the smaller storm gets merged into the bigger storm.
Complete merger
In such a form of interaction, a complete merger occurs between two storms of the same or similar strength.
Why in the news?
California experienced a minimum of twelve atmospheric river storms earlier this year. Two small regions of low pressure were seen drawn together in a situation that appeared as if they were dancing, rather than getting merged together in one of these storms. The stronger low-pressure region turned out to be the dominant one. This scenario was seen for a brief moment as a Fujiwhara effect.
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