# Hurricanes and the oil spill.
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [May 3, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183 "2010-05-03T18:07:15Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/1 "2010-05-03T18:07:15Z")
What could be the impact of a hurricane on the oil leak?
Could it possibly help in any way by diapering the oil? Or would it just cause more problems? Could the powerful storms suck up some of the oily waters and cause oily rain far inland ruining crops and other vitals?
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/2 "2010-05-03T21:46:12Z")
A [similar question](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=12408709) was asked the other day but we didn’t come up with any answers.
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### Author:  [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)
#### Post date: [May 3, 2010, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/3 "2010-05-03T22:43:28Z")
Well, can oily water be taken up into clouds, do we know that?
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2010, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/4 "2010-05-04T00:41:11Z")
By a water spout yes. Which is why it occasionally rains fish & seaweed a few miles inland after a waterspout-bearing thunderstorm makes landfall.
But by evaporation & later condensation into rain, not really. Or at least not at a rate that matters. Crude doesn’t evaporate all that well. And the lighter fractions are evaporating anyhow, hurricane or no.
And as \*\*NinetyWt \*\*said in the other thread, if the slick is already near shore the storm surge could push it as far inland as the seawater gets. Could be a couple miles over flat terrain or many miles across marshland / wetland.
[Hijack]
Paging **NinetyWt** … I’ve been wondering for some time now why a hydrologist / hydraulic engineer would have a handle like **NinetyWt**. After all, oil & water don’t mix. 😉 This thread seemed the most apropos place to ask …
So, how’d you get / choose the cool moniker?
[/Hijack]
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### Author:  [@NinetyWt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NinetyWt)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/5 "2010-05-04T01:58:37Z")
You’re right, it has nothing to do with hydrology. It is something my hubby says in jest.
You know how sometimes, like when someone asks you a question, if you think of several things at once your mind kind of freezes up, the ‘wheels’ turn more slowly? He would say "that’s when the 90-weight hit’, meaning he had too many thoughts all trying to get out at once, like thick grease had slowed down the cogs of his brain.
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### Author:  [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)
#### Post date: [May 4, 2010, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/6 "2010-05-04T02:27:53Z")
Cool. Thanx.
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### Author:  [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)
#### Post date: [May 5, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hurricanes-and-the-oil-spill/538183/7 "2010-05-05T14:38:28Z")
A hurricane would seriously compound the disaster. It would disrupt efforts to control and clean up the spill and would carry the oil inland with the storm surge.