Two storms set to undergo bizarre 'Fujiwhara' dance, leaving only 1 standing in the end
Tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, are nature's most massive and powerful storms. They can span hundreds of miles in width and are so fearsome that they can wipe out entire coastal communities in a matter of hours.
These storms may be mighty, but they can be particularly fickle in their movements, and on rare occasions, they can display some truly bizarre -- even aggressive -- behavior when they get a little too close to each other.
In a dance known as the Fujiwhara effect, tropical cyclones can swirl around a fixed point between one another, with one storm's winds often stripping the other of its densely packed core of towering thunderstorms, leaving it a pale shadow of its former self.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Sometimes, as will happen during the next few days in the Eastern Pacific Ocean, one storm will actually absorb another in a rare display of hurricane cannibalism.
What's going on right now across the Pacific Ocean is truly remarkable. There are seven named tropical cyclones raging across the vast ocean basin at the moment, an unusually high number of storms to have developed at the same time.
In addition, one pair of storms -- Typhoon Noru and the former Tropical Storm Kulap -- have already tangoed in a Fujiwhara dance. That dance killed Kulap, which on Thursday appeared as just a low-level swirl of clouds on satellite imagery.
Now, it's time for Hurricane Hilary and Tropical Storm Irwin to explore their relationship in the eastern Pacific, and it doesn't look like this will end well for Irwin.
To have two Fujiwhara interactions taking place in the same ocean at virtually the same time is almost unheard of.
Computer model projections vary given differences in how the storms' intensities may evolve, but the general scenario appears to be clear. During the next four days, Tropical Storm Irwin will loop around Hurricane Hilary and then merge with it in a kind of involuntary tropical cyclone takeover.
The Fujiwhara effect occurs when two storms get close enough for their circulations to interact, which usually means the storms approach within 600 to 900 miles of one another. Their interactions send them pinwheeling around, making them look somewhat like a meteorological version of a fidget spinner.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
The Fujiwhara effect gets its name from Japanese meteorologist Sakuhei Fujiwhara, who worked at the Central Meteorological Observatory of Tokyo. In 1921, he wrote a paper describing the movement of whirlpools and other types of vortices when they exist in close proximity to one another.
Because Hurricane Hilary and Tropical Storm Irwin will remain well to the southwest of Mexico and California during their Fujiwhara interaction, neither storm will cause major impacts on land. However, dangerous surf is expected to reach southern California's beaches this weekend.
Adam Rosenberg contributed reporting.
Andrew Freedman is Mashable's Senior Editor for Science and Special Projects. Prior to working at Mashable, Freedman was a Senior Science writer for Climate Central. He has also worked as a reporter for Congressional Quarterly and Greenwire/E&E Daily. His writing has also appeared in the Washington Post, online at The Weather Channel, and washingtonpost.com, where he wrote a weekly climate science column for the "Capital Weather Gang" blog. He has provided commentary on climate science and policy for Sky News, CBC Radio, NPR, Al Jazeera, Sirius XM Radio, PBS NewsHour, and other national and international outlets. He holds a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and a Masters in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
