Name: Why Hurricanes Hardly Ever Hit Europe
Uploaded: 2021-04-18T12:14:20.000Z
Duration: 3 min 24 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

- [Narrator] Europe hasn't had a hurricane

Hurricane season still brings a hefty dose of wind and rain.

But Europe has something that North America doesn't,

when it comes to protection against hurricanes.

Hurricanes usually form off the coast of West Africa,

where warm water near the Equator and high humidity

create columns of rapidly rising rotating air.

Now the more warm, moist air that the system picks up,

That's why a tropical storms can quickly grow

into a full on hurricane as it marches across the Atlantic.

That's why Europe as well as the West Coast of the US,

remnants of around 30 hurricanes have reached Europe.

For comparison, Florida has seen 79 real hurricanes

By the time these remnants make landfall,

And that's where Europe's location comes into play.

In order for a hurricane to head towards Europe,

It has to travel really far North by about 200 miles.

Once a storm system reaches 30 degrees north,

it encounters the subtropical jet stream.

Which moves in the opposite direction of the trade winds.

But because the storm is now farther North,

by up to about five to 10 degrees Celsius.

Which means less energy available to feed the storm.

And as a result, it starts to die down by the time

it still packs a punch when it hits shore.

In fact, most of these hurricane remnants

will combine with other nearby cyclones and weather fronts,

that mainly hit Ireland and Great Britain.

But have been known to reach as far as Greece

Most recently the remnants of Hurricane Ophelia

made landfall in Ireland and Scotland in 2017.

About 50,000 households in Northern Ireland lost power.

Three deaths were reported and downed trees closed many

This was the worst storm that Ireland had seen in 50 years.

it will also increase the sea surface temperatures

Which researchers estimate could contribute to an increase

in the number of hurricane force storms that reach Europe.

Some experts predict that by the end of the 21st century,

13 powerful storms each year during hurricane season.

Compared to the two per year it sees now.

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Why Hurricanes Hardly Ever Hit Europe

crucial

average

experience

force