Or typhoons (I’ve never quite understood when and where to use the different terms. Is it a typhoon in the Pacific and a hurricane in the Atlantic? (You know (And maybe this is a better question) why can’t they simply agree on one friggen term already?!)
I would have asked a guy I was chatting with the other day (Who lived in California), but I was afraid he would laugh at me.
So, as to hopefully avoid the possible snickering in my face due to the dumbness of this question, I’ll ask it here.
So, why hasn’t, or doesn’t, the west coast ever get hurricanes and/or typhoons? If they have, when was the last one, and how come I never hear much about it compared to the east coasts hurricanes?
Typhoons are what hurricanes are called in the western (or southwestern?) Pacific. Out here in the eastern Pacific they’re called hurricanes. (Somewhere they’re called cyclones, but I don’t remember where.)
Hurricanes need warm water to “live”. On the east coast the warm Gulf Stream flows up the coast. In the west the flow is down from the Gulf of Alaska, which is cold. So I’m guessing that as the hurricane tries to come north, the cold water saps its energy.
When there is a hurricane in Mexico though, we do get increased rainfall from its edges.
In the part of the Pacific where such storms begin the prevailing wind is the Trade Wind blowing toward the west. So the storms move from off Baja California and Central America, where they start, toward the west. Now and then one will move northwest, following the Baja coast but they rarely reach the US southwest as hurricanes. Sometimes as tropical storms or even monsoons.
Here in San Diego, I have seen numerous references to a ‘Hurricane Kathleen’ that blew through in 1976. The web page for the Anza-Borrego state park East of the city in the desert identifies it as the highest precipitation the area has ever gotten (5.07 inches):
Also, we have an old railway system out here called the San Diego-Arizona Eastern railroad that lots of people hike during the fall and winter (when it’s not 100+ degrees) to see the world’s largest curved wooden tressle bridge in Carrizo Gorge. Along the rather easy hike, several box cars are blown off the track and down a steep grade. I have read this was also caused by the Hurricane, which I gather must have had some substantial winds to do that kind of damage, because these things are rather large.
Having lived through a couple of typhoons in Taiwan and Hong Kong, I tend to think of them as more like “tropical storms”–in other words, Big Deal. As far as I can tell, only what’s colloquially termed “super typhoons” in East Asia approach the wrath-of-God hurricanes that we know and love on the Gulf Coast.
But I don’t have cites to back that up–is anyone else familiar with the comparative damage and wind speeds and all that?
That’s what I mean–I’ve never thought of an ordinary typhoon (at least the ones I’ve experienced) as having the same level of strength of a run-of-the-mill hurricane.
In Maine, they exclaim, “Hurricane!”
In Rangoon, it’s “typhoon” as the name.
Longitudinally bereft,
Californians are left
With just tropical storm as their bane.
Here’s the progression of tropical cyclones (generic “cyclones” meaning low pressure areas). Non-organized they are called tropical waves - no detectable center. With a center and with winds under 39 mph, they are called tropical depressions. Winds 39-73, tropical storms. Winds 74 and over are hurricanes, and there are five categories of hurricanes on the Simpson scale, with category 5 being 130 mph and over.
It is not just a matter of a name. Winds at the center of 74 mph cause a discernible eye: an eyewall forms with relative calm inside the eyewall.
Source? According to Van Nostrand’s *Scientific Encyclopedia *tropical cyclones are only found in the Indian Ocean area. It states that these are the most intense and feared storms, with winds exceeding 175 knots (200 mph) having been measured.
Now, if anyone is interested I’ll explain, as far as I know, the characteristics of a tropical storm and how it differs from a non-tropical or extra-tropical storm. But you have to ask me nicely.
Unlikely, considering the Oregon doesn’t ever get hurricanes. We do get windstorms that have winds that are as strong as a hurricane, but they don’t call them hurricanes. Nor do they give them names like hurricanes.
And as far as the origin of the name, there’s numerous theories about it. In my judgement, there’s a couple that are much more likely than the above. For instance, last year a couple researchers suggested the name might come from the name of an economically important fish called the ooligan: http://www.uoregon.edu/newscenter/oregon.html
During the last El Niño, which results in higher-than-average water temperatures in the mid-Pacific, I remember reading that there was concern that the warmer waters off the California coast increased the chances that a huuricane could hold together long enough to reach land.
I went Googling for data on the Columbus Day Storm and got the same link as Washte. You really need to read the whole thing. It talks about “extra-tropical storms” and such.
We here on the west coast are not the wimps of the eastern seaboard. 100mph winds happen every winter just off the coast. Sometimes they come inland. We merely don’t get all excited about them. Also, the eastern media doesn’t care what happens on the other side of the country so little news coverage.
A few years after the Columbus Day Storm, another storm hit. The local fire station’s wind gauge registered gusts up to 120 miles an hour. It didn’t go any higher. Then it blew away. Our patio roof went airborne, across the yard and landed on the neighbor’s wood fence. Kindling. This was 90 miles inland and behind the coast range. Since it didn’t come ashore on a holiday, and we don’t assign names to them, it was just another big storm.
On Oregon and hurricanes: Hurricane is French for any big wind. The Columbia river gorge is world famous for being one giant wind tunnel. Early French trappers would of have canoed down the gorge and easily been astonished by the winds that can occur. I used to live at the west end of the gorge and would get gusts up to 70mph. That is enough to cause anybody to think hurricane. (East coasters are incable of understanding a wind that strong that might go on for 4 days straight. Of course, to us, the problem was when the rain front finally arrived. Blizzards! Ice Storms! Oh my!)
The origin of “Oregon” is quite uncertain. It appears to have come from Wisconsin area Indians referring to a river further west. (Not necessarily even west of the Rockies.) The article dtilque cites is unfortunately one of those “let’s make an interesting guess and get our names in the paper” kind of thing. I have big doubts about their idea. The origin will never be resolved. While I like the “Hurricane” idea, the word appears a little too early for French (or other non-native) trappers to have been west and back. But who knows.
My Oregon wind rant: A chinook wind is a warm, wet, southerly wind off the Pacific. It is not a dry wind off the Rockies. Please clue in your local TV weather idiot. The Chinook indians did not live east of the Cascades, let alone the Rockies. Sheesh.
