Ever heard of the Fujiwhara effect?
Randy Mann.
JAKE PARRISH/Press
In previous articles, I have mentioned many different types and names of meteorological phenomena. There is another one that began to come up in the news media called the Fujiwhara effect. This occurs when two storm systems, such as tropical cyclones, hurricanes or even mid-latitude low-pressure systems, interact with one another. When they get close enough, these storms can engage in a kind of “atmospheric dance,” orbiting around a common center, altering each other’s paths and even merging into one bigger storm.
Depending on the storm’s relative sizes, distances and intensities, several outcomes are possible. The two storms may simply orbit each other and then drift apart, they may merge into a single, larger system or one storm may dominate, absorbing the other and perhaps creating a much stronger single system known as a “binary cyclone.”
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