Ask Lemmy

27234 readers

1333 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected] or [email protected]

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

144

People that were in Hurricane Milton, how was it and how are you doing? (lemmy.autism.place)

submitted 2 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

🌀

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago

The storm was mainly weakened by wind shear.

Here are some key points:

Wind shear is defined as the change in wind speed, wind direction, or both, over some distance.

Hurricanes thrive in environments where their vertical structure is as symmetrical as possible. The more symmetrical the hurricane is, the faster the storm can rotate, like a skater pulling in her arms to spin.

Too much vertical wind shear, however, can offset the top of the storm. This weakens the wind circulation, as well as the transport of heat and moisture needed to fuel the storm. The result can tear a hurricane apart.

Source: What is Wind Shear, and How Does it Shape Hurricanes

As to the destruction being less than the worst-case scenario predicted, that's because the storm ended up making landfall south of Tampa Bay:

Tampa Bay remained in the hurricane’s northern eyewall, which meant that winds blew from the east—offshore—during the worst of the storm. Not only did these offshore winds spare the region the worst of the surge, but Tampa actually experienced an “anti-surge” as the storm made landfall. Strong winds pushed more than a metre of water out of Tampa Bay and into the Gulf of Mexico.

Source: How Hurricane Milton's Destructive Surge Mostly Spared Tampa Bay