The Gulf Stream

MYTH #2: "The Gulf Stream protects us from hurricanes."

Region affected: Atlantic coastline south of Cape Hatteras.

Sea-surface temperatures showing the Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream is a ribbon of warm water that runs up the Atlantic Ocean near the coastline, carrying heat from the subtropics to the higher latitudes in the North Atlantic. It is because of the Gulf Stream that places such as the United Kingdom, which spans roughly from 50 to 60 degrees N latitude, remain temperate in climate despite their high latitudes. In the image, colder waters are represented by blue, then green, with warmer areas in yellow, followed by orange, the warmest waters of all. The orange blotch describes the waters of the Gulf Stream.

It is well known that hurricanes derive their energy from warm seawater. As a fount of especially warm water, the Gulf Stream has the ability to provide extra energy to hurricanes passing over it, instead of dampening that energy.

The Gulf Stream doesn't have the ability to deflect hurricanes, and hurricanes don't follow its current. It is the atmospheric winds in which the hurricane is embedded, not the currents of the ocean below, that have the ability to steer hurricanes along their course, or to deflect them from their existing trajectories. Despite the close relationship of hurricanes with the ocean, hurricane motion still occurs in the atmosphere; hurricanes are atmospheric phenomena deriving energy from the ocean. The steering of hurricanes is a physical mechanism, affecting motion rather than thermodynamics (heat and energy). Since hurricanes are in the atmosphere, that force of steering with respect to hurricanes must also be exerted in the atmosphere.

Even cold waters, the opposite of the waters of the Gulf Stream, despite providing a most hostile environment for hurricanes, can't deflect them, though they can defeat them by starving them of energy, causing them to weaken and dissipate if subjected to cold for too long. Only atmospheric phenomena, like ridges of high pressure, have the ability to steer or physically deflect hurricanes.

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