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> What is a Nor'easter? Literally: a cold hurricane. Some people misuse the term to mean "a blizzard affecting New England and/or the Northeast", but it actu
by chimeracoder 2y ago
> What is a Nor'easter?
Literally: a cold hurricane.
Some people misuse the term to mean "a blizzard affecting New England and/or the Northeast", but it actually specifically refers to a storm that's been pushed inland by sea winds coming from the northeast, off the Atlantic Ocean. That specific pattern results in a particularly cold and brutal storm.
Nor'easters are technically cyclones, just like hurricanes, and the two are very similar in many regards. The difference is that a Nor'easter forms further north, in cold water, and it is actually strengthened by cold air, whereas hurricanes form further south and are diminished in strength as they cool off.
https://scijinks.gov/noreaster/ https://scijinks.gov/noreaster/
- baq 2y agoWeather nerds will get very confused by ‘a cold hurricane’ since hurricanes are tropical cyclones and tropical cyclones have a warm core by definition. …but they’ll be fine with a ‘a big cold cyclone’ I guess ;)
- chimeracoder 2y ago> Weather nerds will get very confused by ‘a cold hurricane’ since hurricanes are tropical cyclones and tropical cyclones have a warm core by definition. Well, it's literally true: a hurricane is a tropical cyclone, and a nor'easter is an extratropical cyclone. A nor'easter is literally the "cold" counterpart of a hurricane!
- foobarian 2y agoSo like, the Nor'easter is a cryo-cyclone and the regular hurricanes are pyro-cyclones!