Not the Miami Canes you may have in mind…

If you’ve spent some time in Florida, you are most definitely aware of the threat hurricanes pose to our infrastructure. Hurricane season is from June 1st to November 30th, a good chunk of the year, and South Florida experiences especially intense rain and flooding from July to November. We’ve seen it in our community this year and frankly it should be expected. South Florida was built over the Everglades swamp which houses the animals evolved to withstand such wet conditions as well as the plants needed to mediate harsh waters like mangroves…building over this environment clearly has its downsides. 

Flooding in South Florida, NY Times

What exactly is a hurricane? They are cyclones that travel across the Atlantic bringing in strong rain and winds. They form and exist in low pressure areas, meaning the atmospheric pressure where the hurricane exists is lower than the atmosphere surrounding the hurricane. High pressure areas usually lead to clear skies. In the summer, in the midst of winds blowing and warm waters, thunderstorms begin to form and collect into a powerful cloud that rotates when it “comes into contact” with the Earth’s rotation over the ocean.

It is the eastern winds that have initiated most hurricanes that have affected the US and islands in the Caribbean. Typically winds flow west to east in accordance to the Earth's rotation, where colder air is found above the equator in the North, and warmer air on the equator. In the summer, due to the intense heat of the Sahara north of the cooler air from the Savanna in the south, the location of where hot and cool air lies is flipped. The wind's temperature is unstable and the direction is flipped to east to west instead. It creates the African Easterly jet, which flows from the west coast of Africa (around Guinea) to the coasts of the Caribbean and Northern America. 

We are familiar with the hurricanes that have hit Florida and are currently experiencing intense storms right now! When we look at wind maps, we’ll notice that hurricanes in Florida and in the Northern Hemisphere all rotate anticlockwise, while those below the equator rotate clockwise. This is due to the Coriolis effect, which discusses rotation with respect to another rotating body, in our case, the Earth and cyclones. The difference in rotational directions is very real– the Coriolis effect pushes winds in different directions as the Earth rotates. 

If the Earth didn't rotate, the winds at the equator would simply go straight up to the North and straight down to the South. This is due to the Earth's tilt, where the equator is closer to the Sun than the poles making it hotter. The air in this region is also hotter, so gas molecules are further apart, making the atmosphere wider than the atmosphere in the poles. The Universe prefers balance, so the wider atmosphere will try balance out the thinner one by moving towards the poles. Thus, there is a natural force pushing the air upwards and downwards. Since the Earth rotates anticlockwise, there is a new direction introduced combining with the north and south pulls. Equator winds are shoved right in the North and pushed left in the South. This is only applicable to large scale occurrences, not to everyday items like the direction a toilet flushes. That is up to the plumbing’s design. 

Some of you may have seen people discuss 2026 being an El Niño year, which has reduced the possibility and power of hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico. El Niño is a weather pattern that forms in the Pacific. Pacific trade winds typically flow from the western coast of South America to Oceania, keeping the air over the Pacific relatively cool. There are times when these trade winds weaken however, and combined with strong winds from monsoons in the Indian ocean, push air towards the Americas instead.

Without the trade wind cooling effect, waters and air become warmer than usual, rush to the top of the atmosphere, and disturb the brewing storms in the Atlantic that need time and moisture to form into a hurricane. El Niño doesn’t have a set schedule, and as it releases heat from the Pacific into the atmosphere, it gives a glimpse of what a warmer world looks like. Considering everyone is always complaining about how much worse the current summer is to the previous one, maybe we should take global warming more seriously, though everyday humans are not to blame for the mass carbon emission into the atmosphere. 

So, no football season here. Just rain. Sorry Miami fans.

-Val